Escape From Pandora
by JChandley
Summary: 100 years after the events of Avatar, Pandora has become a prison where the RDA sends criminals to mine. Dwight Dolton isn't a criminal. And he wants to escape. *Complete*
1. Chapter 1: Dwight Dolton

**My new story. I've taken all feedback on board and hope to provide you with an entertaining ride :)**

* * *

><p>I've never told this story to anyone before, so I don't really know where to begin. Maybe from when I first knocked out Jessie Nixon. Or maybe when I met Richard Hilton. I'm getting ahead of myself here. My name is Dolton. Dwight J Dolton. When this story took place I would've been about thirty I think.<p>

It's hard to remember. Somewhere around thirty. Old enough to think you know the world but young enough to be surprised by it. Especially if that world's not your own.

I was born on the 6th February 2219. I was the first of two brothers, born in a cheap hospital on Earth. My mom died when I was nineteen, and I haven't spoken to my brother since the day I left for Pandora. I guess these might seem like trivial details to you. They probably are. But a man wiser than me once said that it's the little details that make a good story, and I've no intention of you falling asleep on me here.

But Pandora. Pandora isn't trivial at all. In fact it's the most beautiful place I've ever been to. And the most dangerous. It's sort of like a leopard. Nice to look at at first, but piss that thing off and it won't think twice of scratching you to Hell and back.

The big blue and green gas giant attracted many a person to science. With its phosphorescent rainbow colours at night to the strange harmony between the plants and animals, a lot of people studied real hard to get to see Pandora with their own eyes. I remember the ad campaigns. They billed it as a new Earth. Suddenly science was the most popular subject by far.

Everything on Pandora was so varied. One day you'd be looking over mighty plains, the next gazing at green, red and yellow vines hanging from the trees. There's always that niggling feeling, though. That you don't belong there. Like going to a foreign country, but multiply that feeling by a thousand. We were all strangers in a strange land to be perfectly honest.

Even now, decades after its discovery, it can still make a grown man cry. Yep, I'm betting that those science buffs were real happy they got to go there. I should get it out of the way right now. I'm not a scientist, but I've seen Pandora. Oh boy, have I seen it.

I never drove an Avatar, couldn't for the life of me tell you what it was like. I guess all of them years ago Jake Sully was the most happy anyone's ever been driving an Avatar. We've all heard of him, how he drove the humans away. Some guys thought that Quaritch was evil, some thought he was a great hero, dying for his planet. It's before my time; I didn't know him personally, and I know better than to listen to RDA propaganda.

But seeing Pandora, I can see why Sully did it. I might've done the same, given the chance. But like I said, I wasn't a scientist. I was a boxer. Technically, I was unemployed but boxing was my passion. I was an amateur champion, but I was going to go pro, I would if I'd have trained hard. But I never had the time back then. Not with how things turned out.

I might tell you later, but I don't want to now. Let's just say I was thrown in Jail for something I didn't do. I'm not really comfortable talking about it.

But back on Earth, in those days especially, Jails were overcrowded, and I mean overcrowded. Back in the old days you built a new jail. But the way things were, the RDA had influence over just about everything. They needed miners.

The big machines they used to use weren't viable anymore. They drew too much attention from the indigenous, and when they tried to go back to mine a few years after Sully did his thing, it went wrong. He taught the Na'vi how to shut them down easily. They just sent the humans right on back to Earth again.

So the new thing was miners. Do it by hand. It drew less attention, and if the output was lower, so be it. But where did they get them from? Where in the world was a huge potential, untapped workforce? You can see where I'm going with this can't you? They sent criminals to Pandora. They built a big jail to house them all. Now they had a workforce. A free workforce.

And it solved the problem back home. They were killing two birds with one stone and making a little profit on the side. It was perfect for them of course. They way they had it figured, who cared about the murderers and rapists? So I guess I'll start the story from when I arrived on Pandora. I thought it would be all right, a free trip to another world. I was wrong. You've never heard of a nice jail, right?


	2. Chapter 2: A Ship Full Of Criminals

I'd expected everyone on the Valkyrie to be loud, brash and violent. I mean, it was a ship full of criminals after all. You can't blame a guy for thinking that. I was wrong. Everyone was oddly silent as the ship shuddered and rocked its way into the Pandoran atmosphere. It was dark in there, the only light being a little green thing which made everyone look that little bit more sinister. I was glad for the silence; I wasn't in the mood to speak to anyone. Even my thoughts about the people turned out to be wrong. Sure, there were a few real mean looking guys, with scars on their faces and muscles bulging out of their shirts. It was the other guys that surprised me. A few of them looked like they wouldn't be out of place in an office somewhere, making coffee for their bosses. Some guys looked vacant, like six years in cryo had sucked their souls right out of them. I felt nauseous myself, and wouldn't have been surprised if I had the same cold look in my eyes. I sure felt empty. A part of me thought that my stay at the jail would be okay, almost like a vacation. The smarter part of me told me otherwise.

An important looking man was sat in a comfier looking chair than mine at the back of the ship, away from everyone else. Not that we'd have been able to do anything without falling over of course. The turbulence saw to that. We were all wearing our own clothes- I figured that we would be changed into jumpsuits or something when we landed.

After what seemed like an eternity, the ship seemed to slow a little before a jolt told me that we'd landed. The important looking man leapt up from his seat after unstrapping himself and shouted at us in an unnecessarily loud voice to put our exopacks on. I took mine and fixed it to my head, the world looking slightly murkier when viewed threw the Perspex faceplate. After a little speech about death would arrive in minutes without the exopack on and where to go, the door opened and everyone craned their necks to see what lay ahead. It wasn't exactly the green forests and quaint valleys we'd been lead to believe. It seemed everything was coated in a thick layer of gray. It was certainly an oppressive place.

'Go, go, go!' The man shouted and we all had no choice but to run forward. We didn't get far, however, as a group of guards with menacing-looking weapons stood in a line to block us. The clouds seemed to match the colour of the buildings. Barbed wire was layered on all of the fences, and men with guns stood in intervals in front of the fences. I couldn't look at anything without seeing a guard stood, just waiting for a chance to pull his trigger.

As soon as the last man came off of the ship, the important looking man made a gesture and the guards proceeded to lock us all in handcuffs. They were tight, and I could just feel them cutting into my skin. To top it all off, it was hot too. The countless engines made the climate even hotter than in would have been besides, and I was sweating already.

The men with guns shepherded us in a line towards the biggest building in the center of the fenced area. It was a huge, depressing work of architecture that loomed over everything else, seeming to remind everyone that this was a jail, and they'd best not forget it. The walls were made to look chipped and dirty, even though the building was relatively new. Fences were at either side of us, with only room for about three people side by side. In front of us was a heavy-looking door that marked the entry to the prison. I kept my head down, not wanting to attract anyone's attention. I was scheduled for forty years in there, and I had the intention of staying alive through them. Some of the guards took it upon themselves to hurl insults at us as we walked by. No-one retaliated but I could see the person in front of me wasn't far off doing something. I thought of warning him, but I didn't. I didn't feel like talking.

The decompression went by without anything eventful happening. We took off our exopacks and were herded into inspection. Inspection was a room where they strip-searched all of us and took anything we had on our possession. When it was my turn, I stood in front of a man, naked as the day I was born. He searched the pockets of my trousers and took out a creased photo. My creased photo. I didn't want them to take it. It was the only connection I had to my life back home, my life that was, from that point, over. I tried talking to him.

'Please, man, it's just a photo, can't I have it?' I pleaded with the small man, my voice cracking from disuse.

'No. Prison rules.'

'What the hell harm can be done with a photo? It's all I've got.'

'Prison. Rules. Now back off before I report you to Warden Deibel.'

I knew better than to get reported on my first day. I had no choice but to give up the photo.

After inspection we were shoved into orange jumpsuits and our hair was shaved off, to eliminate any individuality, I suppose. To make it easier to see whom to shoot when someone runs. We were all told that all new arrivals receive a speech from the head of the prison. Ans so we all were led to a non-descript room that was gray like all the others I'd seen. I couldn't help but think a splash of colour would be better for a prison. I could see the gray making someone angry. Men in blue uniforms stood beside a doorway from which a tall, balding man with glasses emerged. I guessed that it was the head. All of us new arrivals were stood in a line, all with orange jumpsuits on, all bald. He stood roughly in the middle of the line, in front of us.

'Welcome to the first prison on Pandora,' he smiled, showing off a row of white teeth. 'I am Administrative Head Brydon. Get along with our staff, and you'll get along with me. Get along with me and we'll make your stay here pleasant enough.' He began to pace up and down, looking each one of us in the eye. 'Tick us off, and we have a few ways to make you co-operate. It's easier for all of us if you do what we tell you. You are all here because you have committed some sort of crime, and we will not have you slacking or refusing orders. We mine unobtanium every second day of the week. Mine enough unobtanium, and you might be able to ask the board for an early release.' He smiled at me, looking me straight in the eye for a little longer than everyone else, then moved on. Of course, it was probably just my imagination. Probably. He moved to the end of the row and winked. ' Lights out is at ten o'clock sharp, we have leisure facilities that will be explained to you later. Also, this is an alien planet. You will not be permitted to leave prison grounds at any time with no exceptions. There are beasts on Pandora that can kill you before you can even see them. Some of you may have heard of the Na'vi. We will not associate with these aliens, and neither will you. Anyone who breaks the rules will be punished, gentlemen, make no mistake. We run a tight ship around here. Once again, I welcome you to Pandora gentlemen. Thank you for listening.' He turned around and walked off.

And so began my time on Pandora.


	3. Chapter 3: Forty Years To Think

**Thanks for the reviews, guys! :)**

* * *

><p>That first night on Pandora, I thought about a lot of things. Thought about back home, thought about the jail, thought about Pandora. I thought about Pandora a lot. It was hard to get to sleep when I'd spent six years in Cryo, and the quality of the bed sticking out from the wall didn't help either. So I had plenty of time to think. I had forty years to think. Give a man enough time to think about one thing, he'll forget the details about it. Later on in my sentence, I saw the guys. The guys that had thought about their crime so much that all they could remember was that they were sorry. I wasn't about to forget what happened. I tried not to think about it much, but that first night it was nigh on impossible. Put a man in jail and he's going to go over why he's there, innocent or not. I was part of the former, and I had no plans to forget what happened. So I thought about Pandora, about the jail, and about the people. My room that was to be my home for the rest of my life was exactly as you'd expect. A metal bed sticking out from the wall, a toilet and a sink. Not the best of accommodation. To tell you the truth, I would have rather slept somewhere outside, in the green that I hadn't seen yet. I'd heard there were forests that stretched as far as the eye could see. I figured I'd be lucky if I got one glimpse of anything like that.<p>

I thought about the head, and how shifty he looked to be. And I thought of the photo that guard had taken. My photo, my last connection with planet Earth. Say what you will about it, a home is a home and there isn't nothing like the familiarity of the street you grew up on, however run down it may be. I tossed and turned on the hard bed, unable to sleep. Standing up, I walked over the bars that held me in my cell and looked out. Cells identical to mine were everywhere, and I could hear people shouting. No wonder, with all of the fresh meat that came today. Later on, I would realize that the people that broke down usually got something bad happen to them past the first week. Sometimes they were killed, and the guards didn't take any real notice, or try to find out who did it. That's just the way things were. I could hear one person breaking down already, and the regulars were onto him like a pack of vultures, shouting stuff I don't want to repeat here. He was crying for his mom, saying they'd made a mistake. Even if they had, I didn't think anyone was getting out of here because of a 'mistake'. They needed all the miners they could get. Me, I stayed quiet. Crying wouldn't do me any good, nor would moaning. So I did the only thing I could. I thought.

The morning after we all had to stand outside our Cells for roll call. Everyone had to get up at the same time and stand, facing forward, to make sure no-one had somehow sneaked out during the night. With the amount of guards, I figured it would be nigh-on impossible, but a once in a million chance is still a chance. It wasn't the most interesting of activities, as it was just a few guards ticking mental boxes, oblivious to any plea's of 'it was a mistake!' by the same guy last night. Some of the prisoners were looking at him with hunger in their eyes, a hunger I found sickening to look at. The guards just rolled on right by him, ignoring him, giving cursory glances to the rooms behind us. And that was it. Just like that, they'd finished and everyone started moving. I didn't hesitate, didn't want to make a crowd. Most of us moved down stairs, through a corridor and into the mess hall.

It wasn't what I thought it would be. In my mind I'd pictured…well, a _normal _mess hall, with people serving us, we'd get grade-f food on trays and then sit down, not wanting to eat the food but knowing there was nothing else. I was mostly right. People still got food on trays, still shuffled to their seats, still shouted and laughed. It was a massive room, with endless tables and benched fixed to the ground. There was just no people serving us. Machines were lined up on the walls. Their edges were smoothed, and the only things on it were a thin line, and a bigger hole at the bottom. It was only then that I noticed people were holding little cards in their hands. They walked up to the machines, slid the card in the little slot, and packaged food came out. If you could call it food. It looked like yellow mush sealed in a plastic package. The people who had their package picked up a bowl, used a metal spoon to scoop it out, and that was that. This system was news to me. I hadn't been given a card, must have been by some mistake, I thought. I walked over to one of the ever-watching men with guns at one of the entrances and trued talking with him.

'Um, mister, I ain't got one of those cards.' I said. The blonde-haired young man looked at me and smirked.

'You get them one your first mining day, idiot.' He looked over at the guy on the other side of the door and rolled his eyes at him.

'Well, when's that?'

'Tomorrow, jackass.'

'So what do I eat now?'

'You don't,' he replied, a sterner look on his face. 'This ain't a daycare center, you've gotta earn your food. Now get out of my face before I report you to Warden Deibel.'

I uttered a barely audible sigh and walked out of the hall the way I came. No food? They must be crazy. Must have been against my human rights. But we were a long way away from Earth. Six years away. So I shut my mouth and retraced my way back to my cell. Once inside I did some push-ups and sit-ups. Might not have been wise, Seeing as I didn't have any food, but I wasn't going to let my training slack. I feigned a few punches and dodges before I stopped myself. I didn't want to do a full workout. I was a long way away from my trainer, and odds were, I wouldn't get any food until the day after. I started to wonder if my whole forty-year stay here was going to be like this.

Exercise consisted of men with exopacks wandering around an enclosed area like caged animals. Like the mess hall, the yard too was big, the yard going round corners of the building, and with some wooden seating beside a small basketball net. We were all handed exopacks as we made our way into decompression, and then outside. I had expected to see some form of plant life or anything like that, but there was nothing but gray concrete. I was frustrated that they built a prison on what I'd heard to be the most beautiful place you'd ever see, and not even provided any sights. It was like they didn't want us to get our hopes up of actually seeing the thing. I wandered round the fence, trying to see any green or any colour at all other than orange, and was about to give up when I found out that if I sat in a particular spot and tilted my head a little, I could see a singular tree in the distance. That tree made my day.

For the rest of my first full day on Pandora, I went into the gym and trained a little more. I made sure not to look anyone in the eye, and keep myself to myself. That way I wouldn't get picked on. I even ignored some taunting between other people, but no violence broke out, which I was happy about. I worked on my power punches. One of the criticisms of my game back on Earth was that I was fine at landing quick, clean punches, but I did too much of that, one day someone was going to get used to my game. Especially if I turned pro. Amateur boxing is all about landing clean punches, the person who lands the most wins. If I turned pro, there would be no helmets, and I needed to work on other aspects of my game. It never once crossed my mind that If I served my full forty year sentence, I would never get to box again. I'd be too old. I didn't think about that. I didn't even have to stop myself thinking about it, it just never even crossed my mind. I needed a goal to work towards in this place, and if that goal was becoming a better boxer, I was going to reach out for that goal. At the very least it would give me something to do.

And that was my first day on Pandora. I'd got through the day without making enemies, and that was something. I also hadn't made any friends.

The next day was different. It was a mining day, which meant food. I was glad I was finally going to get some, I didn't care if it was packaged and processed to hell and back. This time, I didn't even bother going to the Mess Hall for breakfast because I knew I wouldn't get any. I just sat on bed and waited. After a while, I heard a voice coming from speakers, somewhere. I was surprised to hear that the jail had speakers, seeing how low tech it looked. From it came a stern voice that ordered everyone to proceed to different exits stated on their card, If you were a newcomer you went to exit G. I found out later it didn't make any difference what exit you went through, Everyone ended up mixed anyway. I followed the crowds of who I guessed to be newcomers; the crowd in which the guy who was crying on his first night was in. We were all lead to the exit, given exopacks and herded into transport. It wasn't comfortable. The big van-like vehicles rocked and swayed on the road, the air was stuffy, and we were all packed in tightly. Some people offered up conversation, but most said nothing, already getting that cold look in their eyes. I wondered if I had it.

The van stopped. The doors opened and sunlight flooded into my eyes. I was blinded for a while, being pushed out of the transport. I squinted my eyes, slowly opening them and getting used the Pandorean sun. Say one thing about that day, say that it was hot. I was sweating already. I was hoping to get a look at something outside, anything, but all I could see was the big mine. We were lead single file into groups, joining in with the other prisoners. The heat enveloped me, took hold of me and refused to let go. I figured that It would be a long day.

Only about thirty minutes later I was already at work in the mines, shoveling rock into wheelbarrows. To my surprise there were no guards in sight. Just us, the workers, and the lights illuminating our work. It crossed my mind a few times how dangerous it was to have convicted criminals alone in a mine, with mining equipment. Nevertheless I worked, the prospect of food in my head. It wasn't long before I heard a voice beside me.

'Don't work too hard, you're making the rest of us look bad.' I turned to my right and saw a man about my age, maybe a little older than me, smiling at me. I didn't smile back, scared at what the consequences would be. Neither did I talk. 'You can talk, you know.' he said to me.

'Yessir, I know.' I mumbled.

'Sir?' He laughed. 'We're all equal here son, ain't no use in calling me sir.'

And that was how I met Richard Hilton.


	4. Chapter 4: Newcomers

Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything. My trainer used to say that all the time. Usually didn't matter which one it was; he'd always quote Muhammad Ali to everyone who'd listen and everyone who wouldn't. A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life; that was a favourite of his. But if I'm going to tell you the rest of this story we need to get one thing straight. For me, Richard Hilton is the meaning of friendship. He's the man I'll remember on my deathbed, the man who I trust more than anyone I've ever met. But at this point in the story, I don't know him. So of course I was wary. But he had an easygoing manner about him that made him hard to dislike, even though he was in jail. He had his flaws, but don't we all? Don't we all.

'We're all equal here son, ain't no use in calling me sir.' He smiled at me, a smile that suggested world-weariness but he was too proud to let it show blatantly.

'Sorry…' I caught myself about to say sir but bit my tongue.

'Don't go saying sorry, you haven't done anything wrong,' He stopped shoveling and looked at me again, wiping his forehead with his arm. 'What you in here for?' he asked.

I turned back to working, muttering:

'I don't wanna talk about it.' There was silence until the man replied about a minute later.

'That's okay, if you don't want to talk about it you don't want to talk about it.' Around ten minutes passed, as I shoveled, already tired from the work. I asked Richard Hilton a question that had been at the back of my mind ever since I started working.

'Hey,' I said to get his attention. He turned to me. 'What's stopping someone taking a pickaxe and killing someone down here?'

He sniffed and nodded his head towards the rock opposite.

'Cameras,' I squinted and could just make out a man-made object nestled in between the natural rock. 'They've got men watching us. There's nothing stopping someone at first. I've seen it happen.' He wrinkled his nose. 'It was…pretty gruesome. But there are guards outside, you've got nowhere to run to. They come in as soon as someone tells them to. Even if you did run and managed to get away, where would you go? Isn't anything outside but predators, poison and forest. Escaping would be impossible, don't even think about it.' he smiled, pointing at me. I gave back a humorless smile. I returned to work, a headache starting to make itself apparent. I hadn't eaten ever since they gave us a meal before we boarded the Valkyrie. I felt a little sick, sweating all over. I stopped shoveling and caught my breath.

'What's your name?' the man asked me.

'Dwight J Dolton.'

'Nice to meet you, Dwight. What's the J stand for?'

'James.'

'I'm Richard Hilton.'

'Nice to meet you. What shall I call you?'

'Just stick to Hilton. Everyone else does.'

A deep horn startled me, the horn to signal the end of a day of mining. I walked back to the entrance where the newcomers were being given their own cards. I went over, received mine and was once again herded into the transport vans. I held onto my card for grim life. If that morning I were prepared to eat the food they served, now I would readily eat whatever they slapped in front of me.

Getting the food was as simple as it looked. I just slipped in the card, the triangular plastic 'meal' came out, I spooned it into a bowl. I spotted Hilton and a few other people I didn't know at the end of a table. I decided to sit with them, seeing as though I didn't know anyone else. I sat down as Hilton gestured for a man to budge up. I sat down, the hall a sea of orange.

'Hey Dwight.' Hilton said. I mumbled a hello, feeling a little uncomfortable. He proceeded to introduce the people on the table.

Thomas Ryan was a nervous, pale twenty-something who kept biting his nails. He offered a shaky hello and shook my hand. His arms seemed so thin, reminding me that they were ready to throw just about anyone in here. This guy was too young to be in here. So was I. We all were. This particular man had been in for six years already.

Evan McCarthey was a bigger man than Thomas, a taller man than I. He looked around forty. Hilton explained to me that he was mute.

'Either mute or he's never said a goddamned word to us.' Hilton laughed. Evan smiled and nodded hello to me, shaking my hand. He'd been in jail for twelve.

The last person they introduced to me was an older man, sixty-five he told me. But he hadn't been in as long as Evan, as he arrived along with Thomas. His grip was strong as he shook my hand, our skin the same colour. He was the only guy who told me what he was in for:

'For killing a burglar. Turns out you're not supposed to shoot 'em in the street.' As he smiled dimples appeared in his cheeks. His name was Al Jones

As for the food, well the less there is said about the food the better. I ate it anyway. That first day I didn't even notice what it tasted like. Later I would notice that it didn't taste of anything else I'd ever had. Al described it as everything a growing boy needs to be big and strong.

After the introduction, two guards told a man to stand up and come with them. They led him off down the hallway I went through to mine. When I asked the others where they were taking him, they didn't say anything. Thomas chirped in, his face fearful.

'We don't know. Sometimes this happens, always at mealtimes. Two guards call a guy to come with them. It's always the same guards- the small one and the one with the moustache. It's never the same guy.'

'What do you mean?'

'I mean that some of them- they don't come back. I had a friend, he never did anything wrong. Wouldn't hurt a fly. These guards take him away. Next time I see him, he's in a wheelchair, and this place isn't so wheelchair friendly.'

'Is he still here?' I asked. Evan shook his head.

'Some guys stabbed him in the toilets, with the blade from a razor. Bastards.'

'They've been doing it more recently.' Al added. 'Thomas thinks they're dying.'

Thomas nodded, some of his nervousness gone now he was talking about something he believed.

'What else are they doing? Building up a goddamn army? I don't think so.'

'Why would they just kill someone like that?' Hilton was the one that spoke next, scratching his head.

'Power. Fun. Maybe no reason. There's some bad characters here on Pandora.'

I decided to change the subject.

'You ever seen a Na'vi?' Al and Hilton laughed.

'No Na'vi come near this place.' Al said. 'Almost forgot they were here. I never seen one.'

'Me neither.'

'Nor me.'

Evan put his hand up.

'You have?' I asked.

He nodded.

'How? Where?' I asked, my eagerness making me forget he was mute. I slapped myself on the head. I was about to ask the others, but felt that I should ask Evan to be polite. He was a person like all the rest of us. 'Can you write it down?'

He looked around him as if to say: Where would I do that? I smiled.

As the others talked, I found my mind floating towards the photo. _My _photo. I couldn't help but thinking that a part of me had disappeared along with that photo. The others must have noticed my discomfort, as Hilton asked.

'What's up Dwight?' he asked me.

'What? Uh, nothing.' I said, startled as I was pulled from my trance.

'C'mon, you can tell us.'

'It's just…they took something of mine in inspection. Something personal… a photo.

'A photo?' Al said.

'Yeah. It's just… I feel like I'm not all here, without that photo.'

'Want it back?'

'What?'

'Do you want your photo back?'

'Sure.'

'Well alright then.'

The conversation had left me startled. Little did I know that that simple exchange would set the course for the rest of my stay there at the Pandoran Prison. Some things would be great. Some would be bad. Very bad.


	5. Chapter 5: A Guy Can Get Lonely

Prison isn't a cakewalk. I found this out a few weeks after my arrival on Pandora. Maybe now you've got an image in your mind, of the prison. Probably in your mind the prison is clean, like you see in all those photos. This prison was clean, like the picture held in your mind because we spent forever cleaning it. What the head didn't mention was as well as mining, we had to clean too. And the gym I told you about? It wasn't really a gym. There wasn't really any equipment at all. I used to rip the mattress off of my bed, put it against the wall and use it like a punching bag. Sometimes me and Thomas, once we'd got to know each other better, we deadlifted each other. Yeah, I know it sounds weird but it was necessary. I had to keep my physique. This was prison, there was a very real chance I'd get in a fight. Around this part of the story, this was probably where I started boxing. But boxing in prison wasn't at all like the boxing we did back home. I'll tell you about it when I get to it. After the first few weeks, it was clear that they intended to use us to get everything done, and treat us like crap whilst we were at it.

After Hilton had asked me if I wanted my photo back, he didn't mention it and didn't give any indication he was going to get it back somehow. I was a little annoyed that he sounded like he was going to get it, then didn't but I didn't talk to him about it. I didn't want to appear dependent or needy. If I was going to make friends, I needed to be tactful. I couldn't tell you how long passed until something else significant happened Time in prison didn't seem to exist. A day, two weeks, it didn't matter. I tried not to lose track of how long I'd been inside, but inevitably I went from being able to remember the exact day I was up to, to the week, then just years. And through all of I would go to the tree, the wondrous image of nature that was one of the things that kept me sane in some of the insane times. I became attached to the tree, began to think of it as a person. It wasn't perfect; Some of the branches looked spindly and there was a part where no leaves grew at all, but it was my tree.

Despite it's flaws, it was perfect. A reminder that we were still on an alien planet. After some time exopacks became second nature, and I couldn't think of going outside without one.

So the days passed, and I gradually became closer to the ragtag group of people I called my friends. A mute, an old timer, a nervous sickly looking man, an optimist and now, finally, a boxer. I began to notice little things about my friends. Al would scratch his beard with his left hand when he was thinking, Thomas pointed his finger when he was angry. Evan engaged with us as if he wasn't mute, and sometimes, we forgot he was. We stuck together, safer in a group than we ever would be alone.

Under all of this, I continued training. It was my passion. My goal. I thought that I'd never box again, but I had to keep training.

Then Hilton became my Cornerman. I was so surprised that boxing matches would be allowed in here, but then I thought back to the guards taking the men away and wasn't surprised anymore. They didn't care what we did in here, so long as we followed orders.

'You want to be my Cornerman?' I had said to Hilton in the mess hall. The food remained the same.

'Yeah, I used to take an interest in boxing myself. I know a good boxer when I see one.' He winked at me.

And that was that. Suddenly all of my free time was spent working out, preparing for matches. There was a boxing community I didn't know about previously, and kicked myself for not noticing.

'This boxing isn't like other wrestling.' Hilton told me.

'Why not?' I replied, halfway through a sit-up.

'It's brutal. No rounds, no ref, no gloves. Just two guys going at it until someone gives up or gets knocked out. You won't be finding any TKO's here.'

A TKO was a technical knockout, when a referee stopped a match because someone was too badly injured.

'I'm up for it.' I said back.

'Good job, Dwight.'

The boxing took place in a room next to the gym that was empty and out of use. The floor was cushioned, so nobody would break their skull if they fell to the round. Nobody knew what the room was there for. Looking up at the camera in the corner, I guessed the guards wanted to see fights too. The crowd of people would be the edges of the ring. That first boxing match, I was glad to be walking into a match again, when I thought that I wouldn't ever gain. My first opponent was a man named Jessie Nixon. A pale white guy with tattoos on his arms and chest. Despite looking somewhat lighter than me, I wasn't going to underestimate an opponent just because he looked small. As I walked into the room I savored the crows jeering and shouting, pretending that I was in a huge boxing arena. The air smelled terrible, but I had pretty much gotten used to that now. The smell of sweat and excrement was just as common place as the clean air we breathed outside. As I eyed my opponent, Hilton spoke to me.

'Watch out for power punches. Play to your strengths, Dwight,' I nodded, thinking now that this wasn't so much a boxing match as it was two guys hailing at each other. I shoved this out of my mind and tried to think of it as boxing, and remember techniques. A guy shouted for us to start, and I immediately messed up.

Jessie came at me with fast punches aimed at the head and I forgot that I wasn't wearing gloves. I raised my hands to protect my self and instantly got punched in the right cheek. This started me some, and he landed more and more, his blows crashing down on me and making my brain rattle. When I realized I was waiting for the round to end I decided to act- there was no rounds. I cursed myself that my technique had been thrown out of the window, but decided I was still going to win this match. I wasn't shook up too bad, and at least I wasn't bleeding. I dodged back away from his punches, keeping out of his reach but within mine. I heard shouts from Hilton coming form the sidelines, but it was all just noise. I jabbed with my left, landed one above his eye and immediately followed with a right hook. For the moment, he was stunned at being hit so I decided to wail on him as best I could. I hit him with a flurry of uppercuts and hooks, throwing in power punches to try and draw blood. I tried to ignore my aching knuckles. Eventually he pushed me away and headbutted me. This caught me surprise, a move that would be allowed hear since there was no ref. Somewhere in the back of my mind it registered that my nose was bleeding, but I concentrated on style. My out-fighter style lent itself more to time-out victories than straight up knockouts. I decided to focus on counter punching when Jessie landed a particularly bone-rattling uppercut. I made sure to keep my teeth clenched together so as not to bite off a chunk of my tongue.

At this point in the fight, I was tired, but Jessie showed no signs of slowing. Without warning, he pushed me though the crowd and into the wall. The breath knocked out of me, he punched me again and again, never seeming to draw blood. To get out, I decided to do something I'd never think of doing back on Earth.

I landed a low blow, below the belt.

Jessie wheezed, doubled over. The crowd was really pumped now. Taking my opportunity, I put all of my strength into a right uppercut that hurt my knuckles something bad. It looked like it hurt my opponent more though. Jessie fell straight down onto the floor, some people wincing as the blow hit. He tried to get up, but fell down again. I had won.

A huge smile came over my face as Hilton and other members of the crowd came over to congratulate me. I looked over at Jessie; some people were helping him up. He looked at me with contempt as he walked out. I was oblivious to it- I had won. Later on I would regret it.

Al, Evan, and Thomas were all there to congratulate me too. For perhaps the first time I had been on Pandora, I felt truly happy. I was boxing again. And it felt great.

Later, in the mess hall I received a surprise. A very pleasant one.

'Then you landed that uppercut-bam!' Thomas said, grinning. 'I never doubted you for a second, Dwight!'

'Yeah, me neither. I'd got a pretty hefty bet riding on you.' Al laughed. I looked at him, puzzled.

'What do you bet with?' I asked him.

'Drugs.' He said, as nonchalant as if he's just said sunflowers.

'Drugs? How the…how the hell do you get them?'

'Some guards have a huge stash. They'll give it to you for…' he coughed, the first time I'd seen him a little nervous. 'Favors… you know out here a guy can get lonely.'

'Don't tell me any more. I'll report you to Warden Deibel.' I insisted. He smiled, something that seemed to be planted on his face all the time. It had become an inside joke for all of us, based upon the fact that seemingly all of the guards threatened with Warden Deibel. I had never met him, but I would. Oh boy, I would.

'Anyway, Dwight,' Hilton said. 'We got a present for you, a congratulations.'

'Not drugs.' I said seriously. I was never going to put that garbage in my body.

'Not drugs.' He suddenly produced a piece of paper about the size of a photo and passed it over to me. It was a photo. It was my photo. I looked at it, a tear forming in my eye. I stroked the creases. I thanked them, my voice cracking. I now truly felt that these men were my friends.

'Don't mention it.' Hilton patted me on the shoulder.

'How'd you get it?' I asked. 'Wait… I don't want to know.' Evan nodded.

So, D. Who's the girl?' Thomas asked me, spooning the yellow mush into his mouth.

'She's…she was my wife.' I said solemnly, looking at the photo.

'Quite a catch, my friend.' Al said.

'Yeah,' I smiled. 'Guess she is. Her name's Emma,' I kept on looking at the photo. It showed my wife and me in the sun, smiling as if we were the happiest people in the world. I traced my fingers over her bump, remembering our baby girl that would have been just about born now. I smiled at the memory. She was laughing, looking in the direction of the camera but not quite at it. I was next to her, kissing her cheek. A tear rolled down my cheek, realizing that all of this was gone. I noticed everyone was silent. I broke it by sighing:

'She was blind,' I said more to myself than anyone in particular. 'She was blind but she seemed to notice everything. When I was sad, she'd somehow sense it. Her senses seemed to enhance with the loss of her sight. She never wore sunglasses, said she had nothing to hide from anyone. Her eyes are this lovely shade of brown. Even though she was blind she could do everything so well. She made great soup…I would give up anything…to just hold her once again,' I was tearing up. I stopped for a while, controlling myself. Crying in prison isn't recommended I continued. ' She was five months pregnant. I remember when we first got the scan, I described it to her. She was so happy. We were going to call our baby girl Lizzie. We were so excited…I was going to give up boxing for the little girl, but Emma told me no- it's my dream, I should go for it. I was so proud. I'll never love anyone like I did Emma.'

The table was deathly quiet. Evan patted my back.

'Aw, geez…D I'm sor…' Thomas couldn't quite seem to spit it out,

'No,' I said, looking up from the photo. 'Forget about it.'

'Don't you dare tell us to forget about it, Dwight.' Hilton said. 'She obviously means a lot to you. We're not guys to make fun, right?'

That was one of the first times I remember Al not smiling.

'No, Rich. We're not.'

That night I didn't sleep. I held the photo in my hand, never looking away lest I forget who Emma was to me.


	6. Chapter 6: The Start Of Hell

**If there's anyone wondered about the lack of Pandora in this story, don't worry. Pandora will play a bigger part in later chapters. As ever, enjoy this chapter and I'd be grateful if you gave me feedback. Thanks :D**

* * *

><p>I'm gonna have to warn you here. The first fight of my short-lived prison boxing 'career' was the start of hell. In hindsight, that was when the clock started ticking and the cogs started turning. I had no way of knowing it back then, but I would have been better off never starting the fight against Jessie Nixon all those years ago. The things I saw because of that fight…Yeah, I saw some great stuff. Some beautiful stuff, but now I can, I ask myself: was it worth it? I'd never seen a man die before going to Pandora. Never looked into his eyes as he realizes that this is it, this is the end. There's a horrible moment when a dying man stops thinking he's invincible, and he has a few short minutes, if he's lucky, to relive his whole life back. To accept that he's never gonna see his kid again. To accept that he'll never smile again. To accept that he has to die. He has to go back to the mud.<p>

Whatever happens after is the great mystery. None of us know but all of us find out. The Na'vi have their Eywa. We humans have our different Gods. I'm not one to judge religions but I think there's always that niggling feeling in the back of someone's head. That there might not be an afterlife. That over everything, death reigns supreme. Must have been blissful being a Na'vi. No one told them there might not be an afterlife. That they might not live within Eywa. I reckon it's easier for them to die, I really do. Like I said, on Pandora I saw men die. I got used to that moment when the eyes just become orbs, when the life seeps out of them. It's funny how one thing can set in motion a series of events that cause chaos.

My wife used to like the Chaos Theory, and I suppose it's relevant to how my situation was on Pandora. The Chaos Theory looks at certain systems that are very sensitive. A very small change may cause the system to behave completely differently than normal. And that's what happened with me. Somewhere down the line, a small change created chaos. But here in the story, I was happy to have my photo back, didn't think of any repercussions. As long as I remembered my wife and our unborn baby girl, I'd be alright. Like my trainer has said and I've said before, a man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life. And a man who says he doesn't cringe when he thinks of how naïve he was years ago, he's lying. I was incredibly naïve. And I can only hope whatever God is up there can forgive me for what I caused.

I was mining one day, not long after my first boxing match. Hilton and me were carting unobtanium, the bane of my life, into carts and wheeling them to the entrance. My jumpsuit was dirty with dust, and I was glad that my exopack filtered it out. We were talking as we worked.

'Did Al really shoot a burglar in the street?' I asked Hilton.

'If he's to believed, and Al hasn't lied to me yet.' Hilton replied.

'Looking at him you wouldn't think he could do it.'

'Oh you should see his temper.' Hilton grinned.

'Really?'

'Oh, he's killed a guy for stealing his stash.'

I stopped pushing the cart, stunned.

'Really?'

'Oh, yeah. Never seen him like that before or since. I learned a lesson. Don't steal his drugs.'

'He seriously killed a guy?'

'You act like it's a big deal. This is prison, big guy, his stash is all he's got. Well, apart from us. I was there when it happened. He did it in the toilets. He took his makeshift knife, and damn near ripped a guy up. The blades blunt so you have to stab them, then make a hole with the knife and stab upwards.'

I felt sick.

'That's disgusting. You ever done it?'

'Me? No, course not. After Al killed that guy he regretted it, I think. Told me he was sorry. It was the strangest thing.'

'Anything happen to him?'

'Nope. Well, he was a beaten up a little by Deibel but I think that's just because Deibel wanted an excuse to hurt someone. Surprisingly tough for an old timer, Al is.'

I was stunned. I wondered if any of the others had done this.

'What about Thomas and Evan. They ever kill a guy?' I asked as we were walking back to get another load.

'Nope,' Hilton replied. 'But then again, Evan could kill a whole bunch of dudes without us knowing. Could be a psycho, waiting to kill us all!' he laughed. 'Nah, Evan's alright. Not killed a guy I've heard of. You should ask him.'

'No thanks.' I said back. I wondered if I could kill a person. I thought that it would be pretty easy to go overboard when I was boxing and break someone's neck. I shuddered thinking about it.

So we did the rounds, talking about Earth, Pandora and the jail. It was all going pretty smoothly until a tattooed man I recognized as Jessie Nixon, my first boxing opponent. He came up to me and outright pushed me. If he'd pushed me harder I could've fell onto the rocks behind me and cracked my spine. But I was alert, and he hardly moved me.

'You think you're tough, Dolton? Just because you beat me doesn't mean you're a better boxer.'

I forgot all tact and dignified his response with a reply.

'Actually…it does.' I regretted it as soon as it came out of my mouth.

'Okay then. How about we go another round?'

'Sure, let's do it tomorrow.' I started to walk away. He stopped me.

'Wait a minute, I'm not finished with you!' He pushed me again. 'Right here, right now.'

'There are cameras. We have exopacks.' I said.

'I could knock you out before the guards come.' I was angry because I was sure he was wrong, but Hilton put his hand on my shoulder and spoke.

'Don't step up to it, Dwight. He's not worth it.' I took deep breaths, and tried to step away again.

'Who are you to say I'm not worth it, Hilton? What you gonna do? Run up when I drop the soap in the shower?' I could see Hilton flaring, but he managed to control himself. For what felt like the hundredth time I stepped away from Nixon. This time he stopped me in a different way.

He made to punch me in the face and hit the exopacks Perspex face cover. Looking back, he probably couldn't have broken it but I wasn't thinking that when he hit me. He tried it again, but I ducked, the fist whistling above my head, and I rushed in and started hitting his body again and again. Eventually I got him in a hold that prevented him from punching me. A split second after I heard the guards rushing down; they were shouting for us to stop. Strange that they didn't care if we killed each other when we weren't mining, but when there was work to be done, they couldn't waste time on fights. As the guards trained their weapons on us I let Jessie go, holding my arms up. Jessie looked at me with venom in his eyes. He didn't put his hands up.

'He beat me up!' he shouted at the guards. One of the two walked over and shoved me towards the entrance, growling:

'We're going to pay a visit to Head Brydon.'

And that was how I found myself in the office of Head Brydon, the man that gave us a welcoming talk on our first day. His office he used for prisoners was in a different part of the complex, way away from the stench of the prison. It was comparatively comfortable. He seemed smaller than on that first day, his balding head gleaming with sweat. He was on the other side of the desk to me in a chair that looked ten times more expensive than my own. I was chained to the chair, which was in turn bolted to the ground in a move I felt was unnecessary. After all, Jesse did start the fight. With the way Brydon was looking at me you could be fooled into thinking I'd done it without being provoked. He started to talk.

'Dolton…If we're going to get along during your stay here on Pandora, we need to lay down some ground rules, okay?'' He spoke to me as if he were talking to a child. 'When inmates…ahem…fight in the prison, we turn a blind eye, so to speak. But I cannot tolerate fighting in the mines! Especially when there was no need whatsoever.' I began to explain but he cut me off. 'I don't care who started what, Dolton, I'm finishing this, right now. You are here to mine unobtanium, remember that. Jessie has a few friends around here…it would be wise not to step into those waters.' I said nothing. 'Obviously, you will need to be punished. Your card, Dolton.' He held out his hand. I tried to protest again.

'Your Card, Dolton.' Begrudgingly, I held out my card to him. He took it. 'This will be returned to you in a week.' He smiled a sickly smile. 'Show this man out, Johnson.'

No food for a week. I wasn't happy, to put it lightly. Luckily, my friends each gave me some of their food. I had to make sure the guards didn't see, just in case. I couldn't thank my friends enough.

Later on, just before evening roll call, I was paid a visit by Warden Deibel. I was sat in my cell, looking at the photo and making a mental note not to cross paths with Jesse Nixon again. When I heard someone coming I stuffed the photo underneath my pillow. Two guards came into the room. In the middle of them was a tall white man in a dark blue uniform. It was buttoned up, and was a whole lot more fancy than the camouflage the goons wore. On top of his head lay a hat the same colour of his uniform. My first thought was that he was imposing. He stood about a head above me, and I was a good six-foot. His hands were clenching at his sides.

'Stand up.' Were the first to words he said to me. His voice was as imposing as his height. I found myself obeying without thinking about it. He looked at the two guards beside him.

'Search the room.' I found myself panicking, thinking that they would discover the photo.

Deibel seemed to smell my fear.

'Relax, Dolton,' he growled. 'I'm _sure _you're not hiding anything.'

I found myself squirming as they purposefully moved slowly around the cell, checking the toilet, then the corners of the room. It was obvious they knew where my photo was. This was just a game for them. Slowly, They mad their way to the bed and lifted the pillow. They handed the photo to Deibel. He looked at it and grinned.

'Pretty girl, Dolton,' he smiled at me, a smile that was entirely disgusting. 'Too bad you had to bloody kill her.' That was where I lost my temper. I shouldn't have, but I did. I punched him in the stomach, and in a split second the guards had me pinned, my arms behind my back. I struggled, but it was no use. Deibel looked a little shaken, something that brings a smile to my face even now. He snarled an entirely animal sound.

' You animal!' he shouted. There was a fair bit of cursing there, but I don't want you to hear some of the things that came out of his mouth.

'Don't you ever raise a hand to me again, Dolton or I swear to God I will kill you and all of your little friends.' He was breathing heavily. I had incurred the wrath of Warden Deibel, something that was never recommended. In a few smooth moves, he put the photo right in front of my eyes and waggled it.

'Like I said, nice woman. Shame if anything happened to this photo…' he laughed, it was a cold, cruel laugh, and slowly ripped the photo in two.

'No!' I shouted. The last memento I had of happier times, of my wife. He was destroying it. He ripped it again, and again and again. I was crying. He was laughing. It was horrible. After what seemed like both an eternity and a split second, he put the ripped photo in his pocket and spat on me. I hung my head, distraught. He knelt down, lifted my head and looked into my eyes. We were so close we could kiss. I could smell his minted breath, warm on my face yet still chilling.

'Maybe this'll teach you to not to break the rules.' And then, the three men started hitting me. I curled up into a fetal position, trying to protect as much of my body as I could. I was vaguely aware of a baton hitting me, and boots kicking me. The wood hit me in the teeth and I tasted blood. I stayed there until I was hurting all over. Then, as suddenly as they had arrived, they left, Deibel saying:

'I'd tell your friends to watch out, too.'

They had knocked one of my teeth out, and my body hurt something bad. I didn't know if anything was broken but I guessed that I would recover, through stubbornness and my newfound hatred of Warden Deibel. I told Al, Hilton, Thomas and Evan what happened. They were naturally disgusted and offered me words of comfort, but it couldn't take away the pain that the photo had gone. They could beat me up all they wanted, but he destroyed my photo. It was around then that I lost some hope, but gained some hatred. I was going to get him back, no doubt about that. It was just a matter of time.

Some time passed until the next tragedy happened. I had never told my friends the last thing that the warden said. And I regret it. One mealtime, the small man and the man with the moustache came into the mess hall. Seemed the whole room went quiet as everyone waited and prayed.

'They're coming over here, why are they coming over here?' Thomas whispered, panicked.

'I'm sure we'll be fine,' Al said, not sounding so sure himself. 'They'll go for someone else, we ain't done nothing.'

'Neither did Jimmy!' Thomas cried.

I prayed that they wouldn't come over to us, Deibel's words imprinted into my mind.

_I'd tell your friends to watch out, too._

Just like that niggling feeling in the back of a mans mind when he's dying, I knew they were coming over to us. Inevitably, they came. They stood behind Evan. He stared at us. The men had their hands behind their backs, and only one spoke.

'Evan McCarthey.' Evan shook a little, then looked at all of us again. He got up, stepping over the bench. We shouted, protesting, but he knew what was to come. He smiled at us, then looked at the other guards around the room. They all were holding their weapons ready. Turned out they all respected the duo. He sighed, then followed the men. My eyes were wide, as were everyone else's. They had taken Evan.

To this day, I believe it was my fault that Evan McCarthey was taken away. If I had only left Jessie alone, and walked away. But my pride got the better of me.

We thought we were lucky when Evan came back. We slapped him on the back, glad that we couldn't see any damage. I felt incredibly lucky and grinned like an idiot for a few days. But there was something wrong. He didn't engage with us anymore, didn't eat. He just stared out into space.

Evan McCarthey was found dead in his cell. He had banged his head against the wall again and again until he died. A pool of blood surrounded his head. He never could tell us what happened out there, but I guessed he wouldn't have even if he could speak.

I went to my tree more than often now, almost praying to it. It was the advent of Evans suicide that pushed Hilton over the edge. In the exercise yard, he came up to me and simply said:

'We are going to escape.'


	7. Chapter 7: A Calm Man Turned Angry

Evans death hit us all hard. We'd all got used to him being around, despite him being permanently silent. Without him, it felt like something was missing from our group. I'd turn to look at him, but he wouldn't be there. The advent of his death left a hole in all of our lives, a hole filled with emptiness, refusing to be filled with anything but time. And it filled up damn slowly, but it would never go. I still think about him, sometimes. I wondered what he saw, or what he did when those men took him away. Part of me wanted to know, but another part of me knew that it was a bad idea. We'd always remember Evan. His death was his own choice, and if he felt more peaceful in death than he did in life, I had no right to be angry. I had no right to wish he'd be back. Nevertheless, we all missed him. I have to thank him, though. Thank him for giving us the kick up the ass we needed to escape.

The prison had been widely billed as inescapable, and this was apparent the day after our motley group decided that we'd escape. Hilton and I told Al and Thomas, and they just nodded. They didn't want to be here any more than I did. We never thought what we'd do when we escaped the prison grounds. Guess we'd cross that bridge when we came to it. There was a problem- none of us knew where to begin. We'd seen the movies, read the books, but in reality it was damn hard, 'scuse my French. Our schedule was strict, guards were everywhere we looked. The trucks we went to the mines in were locked tight, the guards didn't give a damn if you screamed you were hurt in your cell. I guess we tried that first. I was In my cell one night, and I keeled over on the floor and screamed as loud as my lungs would permit. I only received shouts to shut up form other prisoners. Seemed the guards just didn't care. Other than that, we literally didn't have an idea. We checked the yard. No luck there. Barbed wire everywhere. Exercise and mining days were the only times we went outside. You had to open the chambers that led outside from the outside. We had basically given up after a week or so.

'We can't do it.' Thomas said one day, walking over to the fence where I was looking at my tree. I didn't look at him, kept my gaze on the tree.

'No such word as can't Thomas.' I said, unconvinced.

'It's impossible, D. No-one has ever done it before.'

'First time for everything.'

'I wish Evan was here.'

'Don't say that.'

The days bled into weeks. Time became irrelevant. Exercise, eat, and mine. Exercise, eat, and mine. Over and over and over. The monotony started to seep in. No photo. I was afraid of forgetting Emma's name, her face, the times we had together. Without my photo, I had nothing to look forward to. The group started to argue, become further apart. We were drifting away from each other when we most needed each other. Now that I look at it, we were all trying to be strong, for Evan. We hardly talked about him, never talked about our feelings. We were guys, we thought that that stuff didn't matter. But because we never talked we became distant. First Al, then eventually Thomas.

'How come you get more?' Thomas asked Al, a sneer on his face.

'I don't you just eat too fast.' Al snapped.

'Shutup, man. You're always like this.'

'Like what?'

'Being a dickhead.' Thomas snarled. 'You were always mean to Evan, joking about him and his disability.'

'What the hell has Ev got to do with anything?' Al stood up.

'Don't you talk about him like that! I bet you killed him, you sick bastard.'

'The hell are you talking about Thomas?'

'Oh, Mr. I killed a burglar in the street. Mr. I killed a guy for stealing my goddamn drugs!'

'That ain't got anything to do with Evan, Mitchell deserved to die.'

'Oh, I bet Evan deserved to die. He take, your drugs, Al?' Thomas spat out Al like the word was poison. 'He come a take some drugs and you took it on yourself to smash his head in?'

'Guys, stop it.' I ventured, not liking to see them fight. Thomas turned to me.

'Shut the hell up, D. You've got no say in this.'

'I was as much Evan's friend as he was yours, and this is just stupid, look at you both.' I yelled.

'This arguments between me and Al, why not go and smooth over your photo, kiss the photo some more?'

'You know it's gone.' I whispered.

'Oh yeah, I forgot, Deibel took it from you. Ripped up now, eh? He did us a favor!'

'Thomas, don't do this.' I tried as hard as I could to reign in my temper.

'Stop it Thomas, he ain't done nothing.' Al said. Thomas turned to him and started shouting. Al shouted back; the words were lost in the volume.

'ENOUGH!' Hilton slammed the table, standing up. My trainer once said there's nothing scarier than a calm man turned angry, and he was right. Hilton's nostrils flared and his face seemed to dare either of them to say anything more. 'Look at yourselves. Evan is dead, there's nothing we can do about that. Arguing won't bring him back, goddamnit. Now you two are going to calm down, shut up and don't argue over stupid things again.'

Thomas and Al never argued over Evan again.

The next time I spoke to Al he had formulated a plan. I was curious and a little bit apprehensive; how could he come up with a plan if me, Thomas and Hilton never could?

'Drugs.' Al grinned.

'Drugs?' I repeated back to him.

'Yep. The guy I do…favors for sometimes, I gave him some of the drugs I've been saving, the one's I got offa him. He says that there's a point at night where the guards switch over. There's a ten minute delay between switches, so he says.'

'Can we really trust this guy?' Hilton asked, ruffling his curly hair.

'Trust him? Hell, no. But it's a whole lot better than nothing. No offense.'

Then it was settled.

The night we made it out was an eventful one. We'd planned it out. One of the guards would signal to Al that the change was happening. He would 'accidentally' leave our doors open. We'd sneak out down to the entrance, grab a few exopacks, and make a run for it. It has to be said, I didn't like it. It seemed too clean, too easy. Was it just going to be give a guard some drugs and he'd give you a get out of jail free card? I didn't think so. But I didn't exactly have a choice. I didn't want to let my friends down, and to tell you the truth I wanted nothing more than to be out of the prison. It had become stuffy and felt too small, like it was caving in on me. This was my only chance, and I intended to take it. So I waited. Waited until I heard the little hiss to signal that the guards were gone. I stood up and pushed my hand on the door. To my surprise, it opened. I still didn't like it. The prison floor was so much different at night, with nobody around. It's like seeing an abandoned city in those zombie movies. The only thing worse than a building full of people is a building with no people. The prison wasn't completely dark, as lights from various sources shone dimly in the night. I made my way to the prison floor, being careful not to make any noise. I was scared.

Sweat was trickling down my back as I saw Hilton and Al next to the chamber that led outside. Thomas wasn't there. I nodded a silent hello at them. Al was positively beaming. I gave a nervous glance to Hilton. He was featureless. Al handed me an exopack. Something was definitely wrong here. I put my exopack on anyway. The world grew slightly misty as viewed through the dusty plastic. I coughed. Al gave me a look as he punched in a code that opened the door. I licked my dry lips. How did he get the code? We walked into the red room and the pressure started to shift. The door behind us closed with a hiss. I felt sick. The walls around us were littered with buttons and contraptions. As the light turned green the door in front of us opened. The light shimmered as I saw the ground outside. The way to freedom. My mind was awash with questions, but they all evaporated when Al shouted

'Run!'

and I ran for my life. My legs seemed to have a mind of their own as they took me from the prison and onto the gray ground ahead. My mind closed out all possibilities as I rushed through the corridor of fence, going anywhere but the prison. I was happy, ecstatic. My stomach did flips and I laughed. I was leaving. It was going to be all right! Why did I ever doubt Al? I licked my lips and tasted freedom. It felt good just to be somewhere other than the mine or the prison. I ran and ran and I wouldn't have noticed the scream if it wasn't so loud.

'Dwight! It's Deibel!' Hilton screamed in my ear, pointing to our right. Al was nowhere to be seen. And Hilton was right. Deibel was stood to our right, smiling. And he had a pistol in his hand.

My mind filled with panic when I saw the gun. If it weren't for Hilton, I would be dead now. He grabbed me by the collar and pulled me to the ground behind a corner of a building separate from the prison. No Guards were anywhere. It was almost as if Deibel had wanted the place to be clear. We ran for our lifes, legs on fire and heads swimming. My breathing was hard and labored, my stomach getting ready to hurl its contents inside the exopack. Hilton was at my side as we ran forward towards a broken part of the fence. Beyond it was a building. My ears rang as I heard the gun fire and a bullet slamming into the wall behind me. I ran faster and jumped high when I reached the fence, adrenaline pumping. My sweaty hands grabbed onto the links and I jammed my feet into the gaps.

'Hurry!' Hilton yelled. With a roar, I pitched my leg over the fence and dropped, falling onto my side. Pain flared into the side that I'd landed on, but I had no time to listen to pain. Seeing that Hilton was on the other side as well, I ran towards a broken window attached to a crumbling building. Deibel fired the gun again and the bullet went not three inches from my feet. I ran more, my legs hurting like hell. When I got to the window I leaped in head first. I rolled when I landed and I hit my head against a ledge. I winced and turned onto my back. I tried to get up, but I was too tired. I strained my legs, telling them to co-operate. Hilton climbed through the window and jerked me up quickly. The room had seen better days. Computers were broken or littered around on the floor, wires hung from the ceiling. We ran through this facility, the pressurized doors opening easily. We ran through the twisting corridors, our footsteps echoing in the metal building. We made a left, then a right then I lost track of where we were going. We entered a room with long tables and chairs. Reasonably confident Deibel had lost track of us, we scrambled underneath a table and waited. I breathed heavily, my chest heaving up and down. I forced myself to be quiet. I exchanged a worried look at Hilton. I opened my mouth before I heard the slow footsteps echo in the room. I mouthed 'where are we?' at Hilton but he didn't understand.

'Helllooo!' The voice rang out. No mistaking it- that voice was Deibel's. I tried to be as quiet as possible. I wanted to run out there and beat him up, I thought I could take him. Then I told myself no, he has a gun. The footsteps grew a little louder, ringing of off the walls.

'You're in Hells Gate somewhere!'

My hands were trembling. Deibel spoke again.

'I'm going to find youu!' He called out mockingly. I heard him knock over a chair.

'Goddamnit Dolton! Dolton, how was it like when you killed your wife?' I bit on my tongue. 'Did it feel good?' Hilton looked deep into my eyes and shook his head slightly. 'Did it feel good killing your wife and daughter?' Hilton grabbed hold of my shoulder, still looking into my eyes. 'C'mon, did you get a thrill when you stabbed her?' He laughed a cruel laugh, which echoed louder than his feet. He continued insulting me, provoking me, until I heard the footsteps fade. I breathed out slowly. We were safe. I smirked at Hilton and shuffled my way out from under the table. I nearly cried at what I saw. Deibel was standing over me, a huge grin on his face.

'Found you.'

I felt numb when he picked me up off of the ground. Felt numb when he took me and Hilton out of Hells Gate. Felt numb at the fact that I wasn't dead. Felt numb that I was directed back to my cell with a wink. Felt numb that nothing happened.

Or so I thought. We didn't speak at all for the next few days. Al wasn't in the mess hall. We didn't answer Thomas' questions. I cried at night.

Then the men came. The ones that took Evan away. And they had Al and Deibel with them. They seemed to walk purposefully slowly. Al looked over at everyone and smiled. When they reached us I wasn't surprised.

'Well, gentlemen,' Deibel said to us. 'Old Al here struck a deal with us. You're going to go and talk it over with these nice men. Me and Al are going to my office.' The man with the moustache and the short one didn't smile or show any emotion. Neither did I, nor did Hilton. We both looked at each other and stood up. Like Evan, we didn't say anything. Like Evan. They lead us off. Thomas tried talking to us, and I just said:

'It's going to be alright.' I thought I saw a tear in his eye, but it might have been the light.

So the men lead us off. The mystery was about to be solved. All I could think about was Evan McCarthey, and how he killed himself only days after being taken away. I hoped it would all end right then.

It didn't.


	8. Chapter 8: You Want To Die?

I never really thought about why we're here. You know, why we're alive, why we're in the universe. I was raised an atheist, my mom always said she'd let me make my own decision. I never picked a religion, never read a bible. I just lived each day, going through my life. I'd never really sat down and thought about the universe. Then I saw this program, a documentary. It went through the universes life span, going into the future and how long it would take for everything in the universe to just fade out of existence. Then there would be nothing, nothing at all. It was pretty mindblowing. Then the presenter, he said that if we took an atom, and counted it as one year, there wouldn't be enough atoms in the known universe to count how long it would take. That was unimaginable. I started asking myself: why? Why are we here? When I first saw the forests of Pandora, I understood. There didn't have to be a why. We're all just a beautiful coincidence, a mishmash of chemicals and impulses that make us who we are. There doesn't have to be a why. Just a when.

I didn't think much as we were lead through the unfamiliar corridors of the prison by the men that had taken Hilton and I away. I had a lot to think about, but my brain just seemed to shut down and my legs were just going through the motions. It was like I was dead already. All I could think about was how dirty my orange jumpsuit was, and how badly I wanted to clean it. I looked at Hilton, and he was in about the same condition. He kept clenching his hands together, again and again. We took a left, a left, a right. No words were exchanged at all. After an indeterminable amount of time the men behind us gave us exopacks. I put it on without thinking. Now that I think about it, it was a little strange that we were going outside. That was the only thing we'd need the exopacks for. What would they do with us outside? Maybe they were leading us to a different part of the colony. I didn't ask questions. I wanted my legs intact. My hands were shaking, cold and clammy. I closed my eyes as we were led through the airlock and outside onto the cold hard concrete. They led us around the fences and then we were moving towards one of the main gates. I looked at Hilton, a puzzled look on my face. Why were they leading us out of Prison grounds? My heart did a little leap at the possibility of seeing the forest, then the bleak melancholy returned as I remembered why we were there. The men gestured to the person manning the gate and it was slowly opened. We were lead away from the gate and through several other checkpoints as the men found one of the vans to put us in. Hilton and I were shoved in the back as the two men walked to the front. The truck shuddered into life and after a few minutes we were away, driving to an unknown destination.

I looked across the van at Hilton. He looked back. His face was bleak and unhappy. He was usually so optimistic, to see him down and unhappy put ten years on him.

'What are we going to do?' I said, my voice cracking slightly. Hilton sighed, leaned back and closed his eyes.

'There's nothing we can do, Dwight.'

'There must be something.' I said, racking my brain.

'No. There's nothing. You saw Evan. You heard about the others. They were smart men, smarter than I am. They couldn't figure out anything. It's hopeless.'

I licked my lips, eager to find a way out.

'We…we can escape, run maybe!'

'To where, Dwight?' Hilton raised his voice. 'To the prison? To the nearest police station? There's nowhere to go,' his eyes were deadly serious. 'This isn't a joke, Dwight. This isn't a game. We can't just conjure ourselves out of here. We are being put to the mercy of these men and there ain't a thing we can do.'

'We can take 'em.' I said, desperate for options now. 'There's two of us, two of them, we could easily fight them'

'They have guns, tasers! Dwight, stop raising your hopes. It's better for both of us.'

I was angry, I needed to find a way out.

'Why are you being like this, Hilton?' I asked.

'Being what, realistic? It's called rationality.'

'Stop this. We can get out, we can…'

'Shut up! Just shut up! You don't know what you're talking about! You're just denying that you're going to die. Everyone's gotta go sometime, Dwight, I guess our time is now.'

'So we're just going to roll over, let them shoot us without any second thought? Without fighting back?'

'Yes, Dwight. That's what we're going to do. If it weren't for me, Dwight, then you'd be dead by now, killed by Deibel.'

'I thought you were better than this…It's almost like you want to die.' I said, hurt.

'Yeah, well maybe I do.'

The van was silent for a while. I was shocked.

'You want to die?'

'Why not, Dwight?'

'That's no question.'

'Why should I keep on living if there's nothing to live for? Day after day, it's the same thing here! Mining, mining, mining, all for the precious unobtanium! And here's a little secret for you, buddy, no one gets off this goddamn planet!' he was shouting now, his face red. He nodded, smiling at my confused look.

'Yeah. The ships come down, the new guys get sent in. Do you see people going back to Earth? The hell you do! The new guys get sent in, no one goes back.' He threw back his head and laughed. 'We're never getting off of this planet. So why shouldn't we just roll over and give ourselves up?'

We sat in silence for the rest of the journey.

After an age the van stopped moving. I heard doors opening and closing, and footsteps moving to the back. The door opened and sunlight flooded in. I had to shield my eyes it was so bright.

'Get moving.' One of the men said. I tried slowly opening my eyes to the light. Outside, I saw trees. I gasped. I shuffled to the end of the van and climbed out. My feet landed on hard dirt. I looked down and saw we were on a man-made road, probably leading to the mines. Looking up, I saw trees. Huge, gigantic trees, with thick trunks and the greenest leaves I ever did see. It was breathtaking, the sight of trees, of dirt and of nature. Birds cawed overhead, swooping and flapping their wings with grace. Suddenly I felt cold, hard metal at the base of my spine.

'Move, jackass.' A voice growled in my ear.

I moved to the right, following the road. A hand grabbed my shoulder, hard.

'Not that way.' The voice said. He turned me back towards the foliage and pushed. 'That way.' I was tempted to look back but decided not to. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I was finally seeing Pandora, in all of its glory, but something bad was going to happen soon. Very soon. I'm still in awe of the beauty of the trees, the way they moved in the breeze, the little insects moving on the bark. I'd never seen so many trees up close. Further into the forest, it got better.

The clearing was full of different colored leaves on the ground. Vines that seemed impossibly long hung down from the tall trees, and a few rocks littered the small dip in the forest. We made our way through the clearing and suddenly I ran out of ground. We stopped at the cliff. In the distance was a waterfall, the sparkling water creating a rainbow. Strange birds flew around over the lake at the bottom. Further on in the distance, the forest stretched out as far as the eye could see. If I hadn't been in the situation I was in then, I would've cried. The guy behind me laughed. He wasted no time in getting to the point.

'Throw him off.' He whispered in my ear. I looked at Hilton. The way he looked at me signaled that he had been told the same thing. I shook my head and looked down at the drop. It was far down, too far down to survive. I was hit by a sudden wave of nausea and quickly looked up. The men seemed to relish in my discomfort before getting impatient.

'Throw. Him Off.' The man said, his voice louder this time, not trying to be quiet. Hilton looked at me and said calmly:

'I'm not throwing you off.'

I was gladdened to hear him say it, reminding me of our friendship and making me forget the argument we had before.

'Me neither.' I said, smiling. We looked at each other for a moment.

'Well then,' the small man behind Hilton said. 'If you're not going to throw him off, One of us will.' He laughed and grabbed Hiltons left arm. Hilton looked down at the drop, breathing quickly. The man with the moustache went to the side of me and spat over the cliff, grabbing my right arm.

'You ready?' he shouted.

'One…'

'Two…'

The next part happened so quickly that it took me a minute to register what had happened. I heard a whistling sound, then a cry from the man at my right. I jerked my head sideways looking at him. A large arrow was protruding from his stomach. He groaned. I stepped backwards and his hand left my arm. He stumbled a bit, red hands on his stomach. He moved towards the cliff, not seeing the drop. One foot tried to step where there was no ground. He slipped, tried to grab onto the ledge but didn't. He plummeted down into the waters below. The man beside Hilton was trying to pull the arrow out of his body with no success. Suddenly a second arrow whizzed through the air and hit his heart. He tumbled down the cliff, hitting the rocks on his way down.

I was breathing heavily, on all fours and looking over the cliff. Hilton was doing the same. I smiled, then laughed, letting myself lay on the ground. When I looked up Hilton was staring at something. I chuckled a little.

'Hilton? Hilton…?' I stopped laughing. 'What are you looking at?' I stood up, dusting off my jumpsuit. I looked the same direction Hilton was looking. I took a sharp breath.

The creatures in front of us were looking straight into our eyes. Bows were behind them, and they towered above us. Their blue skin shone in the bright sunlight.

'Dwight…' Hilton gasped. 'I think they're Na'vi.'


	9. Chapter 9: You Only Live Once

I was left breathless by the sight of the two Na'vi. They were tall, thin yet still muscular. There were about 3 meters high, I felt tiny next to them. Their skin was rich blue, darker stripes running across their arms and legs. Their faces held expressions of wariness as their eyes studied us from top to bottom. Hilton was looking up at them, his mouth slightly open in awe. I was still on the ground, immobilized. They were both women, and I'm ashamed to say that I felt a wave of lust hit me when I saw their minimal clothing and toned bodies. Being in a prison filled with only men will do that to you. They both had long ponytails, one had braided hair and the other had it cut rather short. We stayed like that, both parties wary of the other, neither one moving. Birds cawed in the sky, and the trees and the huge plants wavered in the wind. The sound of water tumbling down into the cavern below seemed both peaceful and angry at the same time. Finally, Hilton broke the silence, albeit with just an:

'I…'

Finally finding my legs, I slowly stood up, putting my hands where the aliens could see them. I breathed slowly, my heart beating frantically. I could feel the blood pumping in my temples. I tried to speak but I only managed to produce the quietest noise, lost in the symphony of the forest. Hilton tried again.

'We…' he swallowed and tried again, fear evident on his face. 'Thank…thank you.' I managed to nod. The two Na'vi looked at each other, then back to us. I tried speaking this time.

'Thank you.' I said. I tried again, louder. The Na'vi with the long hair put her hand up. I stopped speaking. She pointed at herself with a four-fingered hand.

'Leyra,' She slowly pointed at her short-haired companion. 'Ni`awtu.'

I leaned over to Hilton.

'What are they saying?' I whispered.

'I think that's their names.' He replied. He pointed to himself. 'Richard.' He looked at me expectantly. Feeling a little stupid, I touched my chest.

'Dwight.'

I tried to smile. The aliens didn't smile back.

'What do we do?' I asked Hilton.

'I don't know.' He replied.

After a time the Na'vi moved past us and looked down over the cliff. They looked back at us, then ran off.

'Wait!' I cried. I was about to run after them, but Hilton stopped me.

'You can't catch up to them.' I looked in the direction that they ran and felt the hope drain away. Our situation quickly dawned on us. We were in the middle of a forest on an alien planet, with no protection, no shelter and no idea where we were. At least in the prison all you had to worry about were the humans. I didn't know what kind of crap roamed around, and if the people here were 9 foot tall, how big were the predators? I felt utterly and hopelessly vulnerable. It didn't take long for my vulnerability to manifest as anger.

'What the hell are we doing here?' I asked the trees. I turned to Hilton and repeated myself, shouting this time. Hilton shrugged his shoulders. I let loose a string of curses, my face going red and my voice feeling hoarse.

'Calm down, Dwight.' Hilton said as if he had no care in the world.

'Why the hell should I? You're pretty calm for someone trapped in a goddamn alien forest!'

'Getting angry isn't going to help…' he gestured to the direction the Na'vi had run in. '…We'd be dead if it weren't for Leyra and Ni`awtu.'

'I'd rather fall to my death than be eaten by some…some…animal!'

'Listen, Dwight, we've still got a chance here. We…'

'We haven't got a hope in hell! Why did they save us if they were just going to run off like that?'

'Maybe they're…I don't know…conferring.'

'Conferring? Conferring?' I desperately wanted to punch something, anything. 'Graaaaagh!' I screamed as loud as I could, trying to propel the anger out of me.

'This is all your fault!' I shouted, pointing at Hilton.

'My fault? How is this my fault?' I could see him getting annoyed.

'You were the one that said we should escape!'

'Hey, you wanted to escape just as much as I did.' He walked towards me. I circled round him, leaving his back to the cliff.

'We could've waited for a real chance! Anyway, you just said you wanted to die!'

'So what? We're all in here for something, Dwight! If you hadn't killed your wife you wouldn't be in this situation! So don't go telling me that this is my fault!'

I couldn't believe it. My best friend sunk so low as to say that _I _killed my wife? I moved towards him.

'You want to die, huh?' I kept on walking towards him. He backed off.

'Dwight…oh shit, I didn't just say that, did I?' Realization dawned on him.

'You want to die huh?' I shouted.

'Wait, Dwight, wait…'

'Then fucking die!' I pushed him as hard as I could, my anger blinding any rationality I would have otherwise had. I had quite the temper. Hilton stumbled backward, and in a few seconds, slipped off the side of the cliff.

As soon as I'd pushed I felt horrible. The worst I've felt in…forever I guess. I'd just killed someone. And not just an enemy: A friend. An ally. The only guy I could rely on out here. It's not a nice feeling, I can tell you that. I was just staring out at the cliff, wondering what I'd done when hope made itself visible in the form of an arm. I ran over to the cliff, looking frantically.

'Oh, Jesus.'

Hilton was hanging on to the long grass at the side of the cliff, his body dangling down.

'Oh, Jesus.' I said again.

'Help me then, goddamnit.' Hilton wheezed. Quickly, I knelt down.

'Grab my wrist!' I shouted. I latched onto his wrist and he took his hand off of the grass. Below him, the water roared. My muscles straining with the weight, I pulled as hard as I could. He came slowly up at first, his body bashing against the rock. I pulled harder, sweat running down my face. Then, when his upper body started to come up, it got easier. I pulled and I pulled, and Hilton managed to get his leg awkwardly onto the surface. Eventually, he was safe, and we lay on the ground, breathing hard, like we'd just run the 400 meter. When I could muster enough breath, I rolled over and looked in Hiltons eyes.

'My god, man I am so sorry, I don't know what came over me. I am sorry, sorry sorry.'

'Stop saying sorry for Christ's sake.' Hilton's face was grim. I didn't blame him. 'Let's just forget this ever happened.'

I nodded.

Our relationship was never quite the same after that. You don't forget it when someone tries to kill you. I didn't forget that he said I'd killed my wife. Sure, our relationship repaired some, but it was kinda like a mirror. You could fix it back together again, but you could still see the cracks in your reflection.

We had managed to make our way back to the van. It took us a while, but we did it. We were sat in the back, the van making a meager shelter for us. We sat in silence for a long time, regarding each other. I finally broke the silence by asking:

'What are you here for anyway?'

Hilton gave a small laugh.

'You wouldn't believe me.'

'Try me.'

Hilton sighed and closed his eyes.

'I…I threw a piece of litter on the floor. Turned out one of the RDA guys was there. He reported me and next thing I know…' he made a whooshing sound. 'I'm being shipped to Pandora.'

My eyes were wide open in disbelief.

'You're kidding, right?' I said.

'Told you that you wouldn't believe me.'

'Wait, seriously? You got thrown in here for throwing litter on the floor?'

'Yes.'

'Oh my God.'

'They find any excuse. Another offense means another miner. Wouldn't surprise me if the whole world had gone into revolution whilst we've been here, they keep doing stuff like that.'

'You got any family?'

'I had a sister. I don't think I'm ever going to see her again.'

'Don't say that. We're one step towards escaping this planet.'

'The only way we could escape is if someone called a ship down from the Venture star up above. And I don't see how that's going to happen.'

* * *

><p>A loud noise awoke me from my slumber. I was lying on one of the benches of the van, my leg on the floor. My body ached from sleeping on such a rough surface. I got up slowly, my bones cracking. I listened out. Thee it was again. Someone was banging on the doors of the van.<p>

'Hilton!' I whispered, shaking him. He opened an eye lazily. He got up quickly when he heard the banging.

'Alright,' he whispered. 'On three, bash the doors open.' He held up one finger, then two. When he held up a third we bashed our shoulders on the double doors. They swung open violently. I could make out two figures in the darkness. They had retreated a little way from the van, and it looked like they were pointing something at us. It took me a few seconds to realize they were bows. I put my hands up. Chances were it was the two Na'vi that saved us before. I tried desperately to remember their names.

It began with an L, what was it…

' Leyra? Ni`awtu?' Hilton's voice came from beside me.

The two figures mercifully lowered their bows. It was them. I stepped out of the van, my hands still up. What I saw blew my mind.

I hadn't noticed it in the van, but the two Na'vi were glowing a lighter blue in patches of their body. I must say, it made them look even more beautiful and graceful than they were before. I looked around me. The night was alive with colors, different shades of blue and purple. It seemed that everything had a light in it, but this wasn't harsh, unnatural light. Everything was soft and beautiful, every huge, strange plant, every piece of ground was washed in a breathtaking blue light. I took a step forward and found that the forest floor in front of us glowed when we stepped on it. I felt like crying. I've never to this day seen more beautiful things than the Pandorean night, and it almost made the entire hassle, all of the jail time, worth it. Almost. I looked at Hilton, the plants reflected on his exopack. A thought I saw a tear trickle down his cheek.

'It's…beautiful.' I choked. Hilton merely nodded.

The Na'vi gave us a moment, then walked slowly towards us. I'm still ashamed to say I felt another wave of desire. But I had no idea why they saved us. No idea why they were here. They came close up to us, close enough so that I had to look up to see their faces. They knelt by us and looked deep into our eyes. I looked back, the big glowing orange orbs looking so intelligent, so human. One of them, I think it was Ni`awtu, near Hilton, said something in Na'vi. Leyra said something back. I was scared but thrilled. Leyra looked as if she was thinking. Then she turned to me, a small smile on her face that would've made me weak at the knees if I weren't already.

'Come.' She said. She stood and started walking slowly away. Hilton gave me a look. I cautiously followed them, and Hilton followed suit.

We walked through the forest until we reached a clearing. We stopped and the two women made guttural sounds. I gulped. Something cawed close by, and I could feel the air shifting. Suddenly, a huge bird swooped down right in front of us. I cursed and leapt back. It was massive. It was about as high as the Na'vi, and it's wingspan twice as long as it's height. Leyra patted it's beak and climbed up onto it. To my surprise, she took her ponytail and put it to something similar in the bird. Tendrils snaked out of her hair. I felt sick. The tendrils attached to the birds and she closed her eyes. The bird flapped its wings impatiently. Ni`awtu was on another bird. I learned later that they were called Ikrans. Leyra looked me in the eye and patted the saddle in front of her.

'Come.' She said in her deep voice. I positively reeled.

'What?' I asked, not sure if I'd heard her right.

'Go on Ikran.' Ni`awtu said. I stepped backwards.

'No way am I getting on that thing.' I whispered. I turned over to Hilton. He grinned. The bastard was already climbing up onto the saddle.

'What the hell are you doing?' I hissed.

'You only live once, Dwight!' He laughed loudly.

I cursed and tentatively made my way to the Ikrans side. My fear of being left behind was greater than my fear of being on an Ikran. With some difficulty, I climbed up onto the saddle, feeling terribly unsafe. Behind me, Leyra laughed.

'I swear, if I die here!' I shouted to Hilton. He laughed again. I felt a small smile creep up on me despite my fear. I put my arms round the neck of the Ikran and held on for dear life. The Ikran began flapping its wings. I could feel its powerful muscles shifting around me. It came as a small surprise when it raised up off of the ground. I made scared noises, feeling like I'd fall off at any time. In an instant, the Ikran sped up and rose up through the air and into the sky. I felt the air whoosh around me and my stomach lurching around. I was the most scared I'd ever been. We were rising higher and higher, above the trees. The Ikran leveled out and started flying forward. I breathed quickly, adrenaline pumping through my veins. It felt exhilarating. Better than any rollercoasters on Earth. I could see far away into the distance, as well as the prison to my right. I felt scared, so scared. I felt like I would fall off at any moment, fall plummeting to my death.

But I didn't. They knew we came from the prison and took us there. We landed, much to my disappointment, not far from the prison, the closest they could get without being spotted. They were taking us back. I didn't want to go back. Not ever. But I also didn't want to die. It was necessary. I was distraught at the fact that we wouldn't see the forest again, wouldn't see our rescuers again. So I asked them a question.

'Why did you save us?' I asked Ni`awtu when I had climbed off of the Ikran, as she seemed to have a better grasp of English. Her face was grave.

'They did bad things. Very bad. Animals, tawtute. Did not deserve.' I nodded.

I was surprised to find a lump forming in my throat when they rode off. In such a short amount of time, it was like we'd developed a bond. I'm probably wrong. Probably just because they saved us I felt fond of them. But it felt like we'd developed a bond. Something like that.

The sun was rising when Hilton and I returned to the prison gates with our hands up, hoping nothing bad would happen. I took one last look at the stunning forest behind me, never to be seen again.

Or so I thought.


	10. Chapter 10: We All Make Mistakes

**Thanks for the reviews :) Hope you're all enjoying this story.**

* * *

><p>I missed the forest as soon as I entered the prison compound. As soon as my vision was awash with grey my stomach sank, and I lamented ever leaving the forest. We should've stayed in the forest, I thought. We should've gone back to the van. I knew I was being irrational. The forest was dangerous, too dangerous to stay there for too long without protection. But however much I tried to convince myself that I was relatively safe, a large part of my mind missed the sight of the water, of the forest and of the Na'vi. It would be better to die in the forest than to spend the rest of my life in prison. The sight of the real Pandora gave me more motivation however. The forest took the place of the photo. It was the first thing I thought of when I woke up and the last thing I thought of at night. It gave me a reason to be there; a reason to live.<p>

Hilton and I managed to get back into the prison without any trouble. It came as a surprise to me. We'd been taken out of the prison, and then we just came back the morning after. The guard at the gate or any of the guys at inspection didn't ask any questions, didn't even look at us funny. I figured maybe they knew we'd been taken out by the now dead guards, and didn't want to know what happened. For whatever reason, I was glad that we'd managed to get back into the prison without any hassle. Never thought I'd say that, but there you go. I thought that maybe if it was this easy to get back in, it could be easy to get back out. But then I thought that maybe somebody wanted us back in. I tried not to think about it too much. When we got back, Al wasn't there. I was glad. I didn't want to ever see him again. Inevitably I did, but that's for later. For now my only other friends were Hilton and Thomas. Hilton and I didn't go to breakfast, as we didn't go mining the day before. We wouldn't be able to get food. So the first time I saw Thomas was in the exercise yard. As ever I was looking at the tree. I'm sad to say that it was less remarkable after you'd seen a forest of them. I was sat there, looking over the little spot where leaves didn't grow when Thomas walked up behind me. I heard his voice before I saw him.

'Dwight…that you?' his nervous voice came out from behind me. I turned around and smiled. I was glad to see him.

'It is you!' he smiled back, then frowned. 'How…I mean, Jesus Dwight, how the hell…?'

I finished his sentence for him.

'How did I get out?' he nodded. 'You ain't gonna believe this…' I told him a shorter version of what happened, how the Na'vi had killed the guards and then gave us a ride on their Ikrans. I left out the bit about how I tried to kill Hilton. I was trying to forget that whole thing ever happened. After I'd finished the story Thomas blew out heavily, as if he'd been holding his breath.

'You actually saw a Na'vi? What was it like?'

'They were beautiful, Thomas. You should come with us. Next time.'

'You're gonna go again?' he stared at me in disbelief. 'How?'

'I don't know.' I grinned. 'Come with us.'

He shuffled his feet, looking down at his shoes.

'Ah, geez, D, I don't… I mean I can't.' I gave him a puzzled look.

'Are you serious? You can't?' he looked up at me, embarrassed.

'I don't…I mean I don't think I want to…' his voice trailed off towards the end. I stared at him, wide-eyed.

'You don't want to? But Thomas, it's beautiful, the most amazing thing I've ever seen!'

'You wouldn't understand, D. It's dangerous out there, man.' At that point he looked even younger than I'd thought he was. He carried on. 'I kinda…like it here, if that makes sense.'

I decided to let him carry on.

'It's sorta…I like the routine, okay?' he spat the last but out like it was hurting him. I nodded, trying to look understanding when I couldn't really understand why he didn't want to see the forest.

'But…' I replied. 'You should see it. Just once.' I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to persuade him.

'I already have, D.'

I stepped back, shocked. He'd already been out? I spluttered something incomprehensible, trying to ask him when why and how. The harsh beeping noise signalled the end of exercise.

'I'll…see you later. D.' he walked off and left me stood there, dumbfounded.

At lunch I went to the mess hall to talk to Hilton and Thomas. It wasn't as easy as I'd imagined it to be. I found the issue hard to bring up. I didn't know how to ask him without seeming clumsy or disrespectful. The question was tugging at my feelings, my brain was desperately telling me to ask him the question, but I couldn't. Thomas, Hilton and I ate in silence, the air hanging like a separate entity between us. I turned my mind to how I was going to get out again. Not surprisingly, I couldn't figure out a way. The guards that took people out were dead. The 10 minute guard-change was a fabrication made by Deibel and Al. I Idly wondered where he was. Maybe on a ship back to Earth, maybe dead in a ditch. I had no way of knowing. I didn't have anything else to do, so I went back to my cell and tried putting my mattress up against the wall and using it as a punching bag. I gave that up after 5 minutes. My mind just wasn't in it today. So I sat and I thought, much like my first night on Pandora. I thought of the forest, of Leyra and Ni'awtu. I spent some time thinking about my wife, since I felt bad for forgetting about her the past few days. I wondered what she'd think of me, sneaking around, trying to escape from prison just so I could see the forest. I'd like to think she would've supported me. She always was like that. Caring, understanding. I was suddenly hit by a wave of loneliness. I missed her so much. If only things hadn't turned out like they did, maybe I would still be on Earth, with my baby girl…

No, I thought. I couldn't let myself do this. I wouldn't blame myself. I damn well didn't kill my wife and there was nothing that I could've done about it. I kept telling myself that. I didn't kill my wife, I didn't kill my wife, I didn't kill my wife. I mean, I couldn't have, right?

The next weeks passed by without anything happening more or less. The routine started to set in again. Mining, mining, mining. I tried talking to the guys more and more, and gradually we got into a state of friendliness again. It was around that time Deibel came to me. I was in my cell when it happened. I knew who it was before he came into view. The click-clacking of his expensive shoes mingling in with the boots of two guards. My stomach clenched when I heard it. He was still wearing his blue uniform with the little hat. I gulped.

'Dwight Dolton.' He announced. He smiled a sickening grin. 'Nice to see you.' I didn't say anything. By now I'd learned it was best to keep my mouth shut.

'What? No embrace? No loving words?' he laughed. 'I'm not here on a social visit.' He moved eerily close to me, circling round where I was stood. 'I bet you're feeling pretty smug about yourself, eh Dolton? You think you escaped and got back in Scott free? I never did find out what happened to those guards. Maybe you killed them.' I shook my head. 'How would I know? I don't really care to be honest. Jim was always a bore.' He grinned again, then put his face close to mine, close enough so that I could smell his stale breath. His mood suddenly changed. 'Listen to me, Dolton and listen well!' he snarled. 'This is my prison, you hear me? Mine! So don't you go thinking in that pretty little head of yours that you can just up and leave this prison whenever you want without my permission! If I ever see you sneaking around like a little rat again, I will personally hang, draw and quarter you! Do you understand?'

His face was red. I did my best to allow no expression to cross my face.

'Yes sir.' I said.

'Good!' he replied. He turned away, then turned back and spat in my face. I let it run down my face. I wasn't going to do anything that would anger him. I wouldn't let my temper control me. Deibel looked me up and down, a disgusted look on his face.

'I'll be seeing you soon, Dolton.'

I decided to take no notice of Deibel's little visit. I figured that he was angry that I'd got out and managed to come back alive. So he tried to piss me off by coming and insulting me. I wasn't about to let it bother me. At least I didn't get beat up like last time. I licked my gum where there was a gap left from the last time he'd come and knocked out a tooth. I grinned. I'd pissed him off, which was a small bonus.

I saw Al about a week after that particular incident. Only Deibel's visit had broken up the monotony, and I was missing the forest. I wanted nothing more than to run out of the prison and back into the forest. But I knew I very well couldn't just do that. So I waited, and racked my brain trying to come up with a way to escape again. Then we saw Al. Hilton, Thomas and I saw him in the exercise yard one day. We didn't seek him out. He was walking towards us. The sun was bright and everything that was being touched by the suns rays was hot to the touch. I was contemplating going back inside just so I could be out of the heat when we saw Al. Thomas saw him first.

'Guys.' He said, gesturing over to where Al was coming from.

'Son of a bitch.' Hilton muttered under his breath.

'What's he coming over here for?' I asked.

'Damned if I know.'

We all watched him as he approached. He looked about five years older, wrinkles creased his face and he walked with a slouched back whereas before, he walked up straight. He looked like he'd lost hope. Good, I thought. No one said anything when he finally reached us. We just stood there, the three of us clustered together and Al looking at us, his eyes scanning Thomas, Hilton, then finally resting on me. He cleared his throat.

'Fellas…'

'What are you doing here, Al?' Hilton said, his arms crossed. Al looked sheepish.

'Guys, I'm sorry, I had to…'

'You didn't have to do anything!' Hilton snarled. 'You sold us out. What did Deibel offer you? Money? Power? Freedom? I hope it was worth Dwight and I nearly dying!'

'I made a mistake, guys, please! We all do right?'

'I've never made a mistake that got someone killed! Right, D?' Thomas chipped in. I decided not to say anything. I could feel the tension in the air.

'Please, he told me he'd do things…horrible things!'

'That wouldn't be a good excuse even if I believed it.' Hilton continued. 'You sold us out.'

Al had his hands together like he was praying.

'Please, Deibel's angry! He's going to kill me, please, goddamn it help me!'

Hilton looked at Al, his eyes cold. He leaned in.

'No.' he walked away.

'Tom, please, you're reasonable…'

'Al, I can't.' he walked away in the same direction Hilton had. Al turned to me, his last chance. I looked hard into his eyes. He was clearly a desperate man. In the back of my mind, I felt a little sorry for him, and could understand why he did what he did. But the larger part of my mind told me to leave him be.

'Goodbye, Al.' I turned and walked away. I looked back. I saw Al on the floor, his back on the wall. Tears were streaming down his face. I stared for a few seconds, then turned away.

It was an unremarkable morning on a non-mining day when Deibel sent two guards to escort me to his office. I wasn't surprised, but curious at what he wanted me for. Maybe to beat me up again. But then why did he ask for me to go to his office? The guards said nothing after they had explained where I was going to be taken. They stated it plainly and clearly. This was obviously and order and not a request. I twisted my neck round in a circle and heard the click. I thought about the forest the whole time.

Deibel's office was a carbon copy of Head Brydons. There were no photos or anything personal on the desk. I was shackled to the chair. Deibel was sat behind it, grinning at me. I tried to work out what he was thinking, but couldn't. We stayed there for a while, staring at each other. I noticed that his eyes were different colors. One was blue, the other green. It added a certain eeriness to his manner. I was the first to speak.

'Why the hell am I here?' I'm pretty ashamed to say that I was being complacent. I'd forgotten the lesson that I'd learned early on: You don't get on the wrong side of Deibel. I'd almost forgotten all of the power he had, and just saw him as a man. I was being too cocky, I realize now. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

'You're here,' Deibel said, slowly enunciating each word. 'because I have…a proposition for you.'

I blinked in surprise. A proposition? This couldn't have been good. I shifted in my seat, trying to make myself more comfortable.

'What kind of proposition?' I asked.

'I want you to carry out some…tasks for me.'

'Why?'

'Because I say so Dolton, don't forget your place.'

'What do I get out of this?'

Hilton chuckled, a strange, dry sound.

'Get out of this? You're in a goddamn prison, Dolton. You do what I tell you to. I'm the head here, and don't you forget it.'

'I thought Brydon was the head.'

'You thought wrong. I rule the roost around here. And if I ask you to do something, you do it, do you understand?'

I didn't say anything.

'But it just so happens I'll give you something in return. Because I'm generous like that.'

'Go on.' I replied.

'I will let you leave the prison every non-mining day, to come and go as you please. You and your little buddies.'

I stared at him gaping. Did I just hear him right?

'Excuse me?' I said.

'You deaf, Dolton, or just dumb? I'll let you leave the prison.'

'What's the catch?'

'There is no catch. Just me, being generous.'

'What do I have to do?'

'Nothing. For now. Leave the prison if you like. Not like there's anywhere you can go. One thing I do ask, make it discreet. We don't want the other prisoners getting ideas now do we?'

'I…'

'No need to thank me. I'll give you my requests in due time.' He looked down, suddenly occupying himself with a speck of dust on the desk. He waved with his left hand. 'Take Mr. Dolton back to his cell.'


	11. Chapter 11: Held Up With String

I once was told that nobody knows how a bicycle works. It's strange, that such a thing could be applied to Pandora. Not that no-one knows what it's made of, the oxygen content of the air and how much unobtanium is in a given position, the scientists had that down to a tee. But I think they were over complicating things. We don't know how a bicycle works, but it's still a wonderful thing. We know how Pandora works, but it's still beautiful. There are still things we don't know, like the electrical-like connection between the tree in the forest, and the strange connection the Na'vi have with the forest. I think it's these things that add a sense of mystery to the forest. We know a lot, but you don't need to know how the orange plants retract to find them pretty. Or how the fan Lizard creates multi-coloured wings to find it beautiful. You know, when you first see the gushing waterfalls and the towering trees, the fan lizards, the Direhorses, the chalice plants, the hundreds of other plants and animals whose names are unknown to me, you just know that this is all that Earth was, and all that Earth should be. The forest can give a man doubts about escaping, but I wasn't a Na'vi, or a scientist. I didn't have an Avatar. I was a prisoner on Pandora, not a visitor. Still, didn't make the forest any less beautiful.

After my meeting with Deibel, I was left dumbfounded. According to him, I could leave the prison now. To go to the forest. I didn't believe him. He had to be teasing me. I'd get up to leave, only to be intercepted by Deibel again, his grin seeming to burrow right under my skin. It had to be, I kept telling myself. I didn't trust him. How could I trust a man that had tried to kill me, had beat me up? The answer was I couldn't. I would never trust that man, not as long as I lived. But he had presented me with an opportunity, real or not. If what he said was true, I could leave the prison right now. My stomach fluttered at such a thought. It seemed too good to be true. And as my trainer used to say, if something's too good to be true, it's fake. I couldn't help but smiling at the thought though. Even if it wasn't true, I had to tell Thomas and Hilton. Maybe they could provide some perspective. So in the exercise yard I found Hilton leaning against a wall. He smiled as I walked up to him.

'Hey, Dwight. Where the hell…' he said. I cut him off.

'Hilton, I've got something to tell you.' I said quickly.

'What is it?'

'Deibel just called me to his office,' his face went grave behind the exopack. 'He gave me an offer.'

'What kind of offer?'

'He said that we can leave the prison now if we wanted.' Hilton leaned back a little in disbelief.

'There's a catch, right?'

'That's what I was thinking.'

'Why would he offer you something like this for free? It doesn't make sense...'

'It's not free. He told me…he told me I have to do some errands for him.'

'Christ, Dwight and you're going to do it?'

'Of course! He said that he hasn't even got anything for me now. Hilton, we can go to the forest right now!'

'Calm down, you don't want everyone hearing. What makes you think he's telling the truth?'

'Nothing. I've just got to take his word for it.'

'Deibel isn't exactly the most trustworthy person. This is too dangerous.'

'Hilton, please! We might not get this opportunity again. Just come with me, to see if it's true.'

'I don't know, Dwight, something smells fishy here.'

'You think I don't know that? Just try it.' Hilton was silent for a moment, thinking. I waited. Finally, he gave a small, almost imperceptible nod.

'Okay.' He said. I beamed at him.

'Thanks.' I said, walking away to try and find Thomas. I manoeuvred my way through the other prisoners, trying to find Thomas. I found him, of all places, in the spot where you can see the single tree. He was looking at it now, his body still. I walked up beside him and said his name. He turned but didn't smile.

'Hi, D.' he muttered.

'Thomas, I've got something to tell you.' I told him what Deibel had told me, and what I'd told Hilton. When I'd finished he simply looked back at the tree, sighing.

'Good for you, I guess.' He said. I frowned. Didn't he think it was suspicious? I let it slide.

'Are you sure you don't want to come with us. Just the once?' I shouldn't have said that. His eyelid twitched.

'No, D. I've seen enough of the forest to last me a lifetime.'

Being a little selfish, I asked him again.

'D, I said no, okay? I just…don't think I could handle it. Not after last time.' I bit my lip to prevent myself from asking what happened. I'm not that insensitive. My mouth dry, I simply nodded to him and let him be. He looked at the tree for the entirety of the exercise time. After I'd gone, his eyes never once left that tree.

It was a couple of days before I tried to exit the prison. I was still sceptical, and my mind mulled over all of the things that could happen. I decided that I should just up and do it. If I kept debating like this, I might never see the forest again. So with that nervousness that you get in your stomach when you're about to do something you've put off, I told Hilton to come with me after exercise one day. I wasn't exactly sure how it would work. I could just imagine going to one of the men guarding the decompression chamber and him not knowing what the hell I was talking about. We walked together towards one of the exits, and stopped at the door with a guard at it. I stood there, sheepishly, not knowing what to say. I couldn't just very well waltz up and ask him if he could open the door. I was about to leave when he looked at a piece of paper, then back to us. He picked up two exopacks that were by his feet and passed them to us without a word. I nervously took one from him and put it on, the pack making a familiar whooshing sound as it started to filter air. All the guard did next was turn around, punch a code into the door and stare off into space, as if we weren't there. I kept an eye on him as the door opened, wondering if I should say anything. Hilton just walked through into decompression, so I gave a small nod to the man and followed my friend. The door was closed behind us and we waited a second or two until the red light beside the door turned green, and the door opened. I licked my lips, eager to return. The air shimmered outside, and I practically rushed out, squinting in the sun.

'We're outside!' I laughed at Hilton. He smiled a little, but mostly kept a straight face.

'Calm down, Cinderella, we still have to get past the gate.'

The man at the gate basically did the same thing the other guy did. Looked at a piece of paper, then opened the gates. I turned back to Hilton, smiling. He grinned, rolling his eyes. We walked out of the compound, the dirt of the human-made road feeling good under my feet. I jogged forward over the crest of the hill, the noises of nature becoming apparent. I laughed when I saw the trees, the forest. I laughed and laughed and couldn't stop. I ended up in a heap on the floor, giggling to myself. Hilton was laughing too. I managed to get up, and grabbed Hilton by the shoulders.

'We're here, Hilton!' I thought I saw a tear in his eye.

'Yeah.' He smiled. 'I guess we are.'

So we walked, not knowing where to go, into the forest in what I realise now was a foolish thing to do. But could you blame us? The stark contrast between prison and Pandora made me practically drunk with happiness. We tried to follow the same path as the one we had taken before in the van. It took us about an hour or two to reach where the van was. I was surprised that we hadn't got lost, but then I figured that we were walking down a one-way road; the same road as last time. It stood to reason we'd find the van sometime. We walked past it, and near the clearing where we were lead last time. Everything felt much better without a gun pressed to my back. It was hard to imagine that a short time ago we were being taken here in this gray van, looking menacing at the time but now looking out of place. Was it a short time ago? I didn't know. Like I said, there's no time in prison. Together we traced our steps, trying to find the cliff. We didn't talk, letting the forest speak for itself. We came out a few hundred metres away from our previous position, but the place was no less beautiful. Birds soared through the air, and the sun glistened on the water surface, creating small rainbows through the waterfall. In the sky, huge globes hung as if being held up with string. Tall grass was at our feet, and down at the bottom of the cliff. The lake went on to our left, and more forest stretched out straight ahead of the water in front of us. A few trees stood out amongst the others, towering over the others. I could vaguely see things flying in that direction. Blue, monkey like creatures swung through the trees around us, picking up fruit with one of their six arms. I was breathless. I raised my arms out to the sides of me and smiled, a tear rolling down my face. In that moment, in that beautiful moment where everything I looked at seemed like a dream. I began to understand the connection the Na'vi had with the forest. It was hard not to feel a connection when everything was as pretty as this. I found myself thinking of Emma, how she'd love this. I could imagine her stood here with us, her chestnut brown hair flowing in the wind, her green eyes seeming to drink everything in yet seeing nothing at all. I wanted to see her again, to hold her, to lie with her, watching this scene, describing it to her. I was reminded of a time we'd been lying in bed together, not too long after we'd got married. I had a documentary about Pandora on the Tv, and I was describing the scene to her, whispering quietly into her ear, stroking her stomach. I told her that the baby would go there someday, and see the radiant planet orbiting Polyphemus. She had smiled then, her eyes closed and told me that she loved me. I had looked at her face, studying her beauty. I remember smiling, and kissing her eyes. I love you, I said.

I love you.

It took a moment for me to notice that I was trying to hold back tears, my top lip trembling. I forgot about the exopack, and cried freely, slumping to the ground, saying her name again and again. I wouldn't forget her. Not now. Not ever. Hilton knelt beside me and laid a hand on my shoulder, pulling me up to a sitting position. He cleared his throat.

'I know…I know I'm not gonna be much of a comfort but…I'm sure Emma would have wanted you to see this.'

This made me sob more. I lifted my hand to wipe tears away, but hit plastic instead. I kept crying until I ran out of tears, leaving me feeling oddly cleansed. I desperately wanted to wipe my face. Taking a risk, I held my breath, took my exopack off with one hand, wiped the tears away with the other. I quickly put it back on.

'Geez,' I sighed. 'I'm sorry.' I said, embarrassed. I was crying too much lately. Hilton shook his head.

'There isn't anything to be sorry about.'

We decided to try and find our way down the cliff, still having plenty of time before dark. The sun had just passed its highest point in the sky. Must have been around midday. We walked across the cliff side until we found a hill going down towards a clearing next to the water. Looking back, it was a stroke of luck that we didn't encounter any beasts. The long grass became shorter and the number of plants reduced until we reached the water. Plants that grew in shallow water rose up in front of us, taller than a man. I chuckled at the scale of everything.

It was a while before the Na'vi found us. I heard flapping wings close to us. I turned around, leaping up, ready to run. The Na'vi women leaped off of the landed Ikran, disconnected the queues. They walked towards us, taking long strides. I then realised that I recognised them. It was Leyra and Ni'awtu. I was about to say hello when Ni'awtu spoke.

'What are you doing here?' she said. I faltered. The silence was uncomfortable. She made some gesture with her hands and said. 'Dangerous.' Hilton shrugged, the said:

'Sorry?' as if it were a question. Leyra sighed. Despite their angriness, I was glad to see them. 'It is dark soon.' She said. I looked up at the sky and realised it was.

'Christ…' I muttered. Had we really been there that long? 'We'll…we'll go.' I said. Ni'awtu shook her head.

'No time. Dark soon. Dangerous.'

Couldn't you take us your…birds?' Hilton asked.

'Ikran, not bird.' Leyra said.

'Couldn't you take us on your Ikran?'

'Not to tawtute.'

I shrugged at Hilton, not knowing what it meant.

'So you can take us back?' I nodded.

'To Hometree.' Ni'awtu declared.

'Hometree?'

Leyra scowled. 'Come.' I gave a serious look to Hilton. He looked back, his face worried.

'Just do what they say, Dwight.' He whispered.

'And maybe we'll come out of this alive.'

* * *

><p><strong>*EDIT* For those of you who read this chapter early, you might have noticed I put Hilton instead of Deibel once or twice: this is fixed now. Sorry about that, guys :)<strong>


	12. Chapter 12: Discussing Our Fate

I remember, when I was back on Earth, the bioluminescence of Pandora was something that the RDA used for jewelry. My mom used to go into the jewelry shops with me when I was a little kid. I'd be holding her hand, and she'd take me over to the section dubbed 'alien' in some places, 'exotic' in others. Some just 'glowing'. She'd pick me up and give me a little piece. There was a little section in the store that was just dark, where you try out this jewelry. She'd put a piece round my neck, take me in there. The little circle would glow on my chest, softly lighting our faces with a light blue. I'd gaze at it longingly, and ask her if I can have it. She'd smile and say:

_Maybe Santa will bring it you._

I finally got a piece on Christmas day, when I was seven or so. When I unwrapped it, I was so happy. On the outside, it was just a small circle hanging from some string. But I'd run into my room and go under the covers, and stare at that circle of light. I didn't realize then how much it had cost my mom. I took it to school, tried to make all my friends jealous, saying it was alien. They'd oo and ahh at it, and I was the talk of the class for a week or so. When I went to bed, I put it in the box it had come in carefully, ever so carefully. Sometimes I'd lay with it in bed. It was around January-February time when I noticed that it started to fade in the dark. I ran to my mom, screaming and she looked at me and said:

_Maybe it doesn't want to be worn. Maybe it wants to be back home._

But this is it's home! I screamed. It wants to be here!

_It's fading because its lonely, Dwight. I think it wants to be back with all its friends._

So my mom put it in an envelope and made me write Pandora on it. She said she'd post it back and it would be happy again. I was sad, and sulked for a while. I realized only years later, in science class, that it couldn't have been from Pandora, because the real bioluminescent jewelry doesn't fade. So the necklace must have been a fake, using glow in the dark powder or something. I laughed when I found out. My mom got me that jewelry to teach me a lesson. That you shouldn't exploit these things. Leave them be, in their natural habitat.

The bioluminescence was no less beautiful the second time I saw it than it was the first time. It kicked in when we were riding on the Leyra and Ni'awtu's Ikrans again. I was no less scared for that matter, too. Didn't seem like there was much keeping me from plummeting to the forest floor and breaking my neck. It didn't make it any less exciting either. It's sort of like a rollercoaster ride. You're scared to hell and back when you're on them but as soon as you get off you want to go again. I noticed the Ikran's body glowing slightly, and dared to look down. The forest floor was far below us as we swooped through the air, above the trees. It looked like a field of blue, every plant I could see from up there was emitting a beautiful light. I had to stop looking though, as I was afraid I might fall off. I was reassured but scared at Leyra's hand around my body. On the one hand, I was relatively safe from falling. On the other, she could just as easily pick me up and throw me off and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. I was just going to have to trust her.

The tree in the distance was huge. And I mean huge. It dwarfed every other tree around it, its long branches thicker than the trunks of the trees clustered at the base. I could see little fires in places, the orange glow creating long, flickering shadows. But overall the bioluminescence lit the forest. The wind didn't seem to affect the large structure I guessed was the Hometree the Na'vi were talking about. With a screech, the Ikran suddenly descended towards the forest floor. I held on for grim life, the wind rushing around my body. I could just imagine falling, falling, the world filled with peace before the inevitable crash to the ground. Again, that didn't happen, but I couldn't help thinking that falling wouldn't be a bad way to die. For a few seconds, or minutes you'd be free, flying in the air like a bird before a crash, and death. When we landed I was left with a shaken body and legs that didn't seem to work for a few seconds. I stumbled off of the Ikran, falling flat on my face. One of the Na'vi laughed behind me. Looking up, I saw it was Ni'awtu.

'You are not used to flying!'

I scowled. 'No it's not in my habit to ride on birds four times the size of me.' She only smiled back, flashing rows of white teeth. Leyra was quiet. I got up, wiping the worst of the dirt from the face cover of the exopack.

'What do we do now?' Hilton asked, breathing heavily.

'Now, we walk to Hometree. Follow close.' I licked my lips and watched the Na'vi walk in front of us. I tried to smile at Hilton but couldn't. I was terrified. The forest, in day beautiful and awe inspiring, was now dangerous and scary in night. Every tree was something an animal could hide behind, every plant cover for a murderous Na'vi. The screeches of birds were now a warning, and other sounds that weren't there during the day were cutting through the forest now. The air was still and cold, making me shiver in my orange jumpsuit. I shuddered. Not the best colour to blend in with the night. Not able to do anything else, we followed Leyra and Ni'awtu, the soil shifting under our feet. In front of us was a thick branch running horizontally across what I hoped was the forest floor, and what my gut told me was a drop to certain death. I gulped. I was way out of my depth. In that moment, I longed for the familiarity of Earth, and of my home. That was far behind me now. The two Na'vi expertly leaped up onto the branch, walking skillfully across the mossy surface. I gave a worried look to Hilton. He was breathing heavily, eyes staring at the branch in front of him. When we reached it I saw that it was higher than I'd anticipated, the top rising just below my shoulders. I grabbed onto the top and hauled myself up, my legs scrambling against the branch. I clumsily got a leg up and managed to stand straight up. Hilton did the same behind me, albeit more clumsily. Adrenaline already pumping through my veins, I took a tentative step forward. I looked up. The two Na'vi were looking back, waiting. Leyra had a frown on her face, and Ni'awtu was laughing at us. I flashed my middle finger up at them before I realized that they wouldn't know what it meant. I took a few more steps. This wasn't so bad. I took a few more, then a few, keeping my gaze forward, not blinking. Then I made a mistake. I looked down.

The drop was staggering. The floor was far below, enough to allow a minute or so of free fall. I shouted, fear suddenly rearing its ugly head. I started to feel myself slipping. I shifted my feet left and right, trying to find a stable position, but it was too late. I was veering dangerously to the right now, my left foot was raised off of the ground. I tried to move my right foot to find a flatter position, I could feel it slowly slipping.

I placed my foot on moss. I screamed, falling off of the branch and down below, far below. Only I didn't. A hand was grasping me by the wrist. I looked up and was glad to see Ni'awtu holding me. She pulled me up, and I wobbled a bit. I muttered thanks, but she didn't seem to hear it. I looked behind me to see how Hilton was doing. He was shuffling along the branch on his ass, legs on either side. I cursed myself for not thinking that. I was about to do it when I noticed I was off the branch altogether, on the other side. I sighed heavily, looking at my hands. They were still shaking. It took a few minutes for Hilton to come over. I held my hand out to him and he high-fived it at he got off of the branch.

'I must be goddamn crazy.' He said.

Turned out Hometree was a place for a whole clan of the Na'vi. I wished I'd remembered those documentaries they used to show back on Earth. As we came closer and closer to the tree, looking bigger every second, I could see that there was an entrance to the tree, orange light blazing within it. The ground beneath us changed from soil to soft leaves, their crunching indicating our arrival. A few lone Na'vi were scattered around the floor, who promptly got up and started shouting in their tongue. I flinched. What the hell were they going to do with us? It seemed like it was only a few seconds before we were surrounded by what looked like hundreds of the blue creatures, looking at is in awe, in contempt, in fascination. I tried to keep my head down, not letting them see how scared I was. Some tried to touch me and some succeeded, throwing me off course. I walked faster, wanting to get this over and done with. I was starting to feel like I didn't belong on Pandora.

Inside the Hometree, I didn't feel any safer. We were told to wait until a figure descended down the spiral that rose up through the inside of the tree. It felt more cramped in there, and I longed to be back at the lake with only Hilton for company. The Na'vi that was walking down the spiral held an aura of power about him. Unlike the others, he wore an ornate headdress. A band holding a leaf was secured around his head, and spiky leaves rose up from the object hung from his shoulders. His necklace held what might have been bones, or teeth. I was suddenly petrified. He bellowed something in Na'vi, his voice commanding and deep. Leyra was about to reply but Ni'awtu cut her off, speaking fast and gesturing towards us. It didn't take a genius to explain that they were discussing our fate. As the conversation continued, I risked looking at some of the Na'vi in the crowd. Most of them looked scared, as I was. I supposed they would be. I was as much an alien to them as they were to me. I could pick out small children, pointing at me and asking their parents questions. I turned my mind to the conversation. I asked Leyra what they were saying.

She scowled at me again, an expression that seemed permanently fixed on her face. 'He wants to kill you. Ni'awtu says no.' she turned away, saying something to Ni'awtu. Ni'awtu turned and shouted at her before moving back to whom I guessed was the leader. He had a thoughtful expression on his face now. I liked to think he was taking pity on us. I hoped they knew about the prison. At least that would provide some context I guessed that that was what Ni'awtu was providing.

She finished talking and a few people from the crowd interjected with their own remarks. The leader raised his hand, and looked me straight in the eye. I held his gaze, trying to appear confident. He waved his hand, said something, and turned away, walking up the spiral. Ni'awtu smiled. She turned to us. 'Come with me.'

She led us up to the top of the tree, and helped us out onto the branches. Hammocks hung from every available space, some with blue figures resting in them. There were two of the hammocks very close to the tree. She looked at me. I noticed how pretty she was. The blue light complimented her face, and she was beautiful without the need for any of the earth supplements that had become commonplace on my home planet. Botox, makeup and unnecessary things like that. I smiled despite my situation.

'You sleep here tonight. We decide your fate in the morning.' She said. And that was that.

* * *

><p><strong>If anyone can find the time to review, I'd appreciate if you did :) I'm always looking for feedback to improve!<strong>


	13. Chapter 13: There is no Goodbye

I don't remember sleeping that night with the Na'vi clan. I remember feeling the softness of the hammock beneath me, surprising me and feeling good after an age of a cold, hard bed. The night was still enough, with only a few nocturnal creatures screeching and squawking. I stared for a long time at the floor below me, face down in my hammock, thinking that I was going to drop at any moment. I was starting to maybe understand why Thomas didn't want to go back to the forest. At first the forest had been a beautiful, peaceful place, but now it seemed I was scared every extra second that I stayed out there. The Na'vi now seemed utterly alien, and it wasn't comfortable trying to sleep with aliens all around me. It must have been an instinct, something I couldn't control. I kept trying to tell myself that I was safe, even safer than in the prison, but my body was having none of it. I was tense at all times, unable to rid myself of the nervousness. I tossed and turned, shivering in my prison jumpsuit. The hammock continued to sway a little every now and then, making me desperately try to grab onto something. I turned to look at Hilton. He was on his side, facing away from me, still as sleeping beauty. I ground my teeth together. How could he sleep at a time like this? Maybe he was really telling the truth when he said that he wanted to die. If so, then of course he would have nothing to worry about. The hammock bent round above me to form a roof-like structure, obscuring the night and preventing people from falling to their deaths in their slumber. I laid there for most of the night, maybe getting in a few minutes of sleep but not remembering afterwards. Nothing feels worse than when you want to get to sleep but can't. You try all possible methods: Changing the end you sleep at, lying on your back, your left and your right, trying to clear your mind but never quite managing. It never makes any difference, you just keep an eye on the sky, or the window, or the clock, waiting for the first hours of the morning so you can accept that you're not going to sleep.

As I watched the sun poke it's way through the wispy clouds, the light dispelling the bioluminescence and casting it's warming glow over the land, I noticed the Na'vi getting up and out of their hammocks. An early start for the indigenous, then. It was a while before Ni'awtu came for us. She gave us a small smile as she walked up to us, towering high on the branch above us.

'Hello.' She said. I muttered a sheepish greeting, and Hilton replied with a yawn. 'We decide your fate today.' Her face was grave, and she knelt down, trying to bridge the height barrier between us. She still was a lot bigger. Her eyes flickered from me to Hilton. 'It may go…bad. If I tell you to, you must run.'

Hilton nodded.

'What's going on?' he asked.

'We are deciding your fate. Akwey is Na'vi I talked to. He is leader. You might be allow to stay here, in clan, with us.' She smiled, but I saw in her face that it was unlikely.

'What happens if we don't?'

There was silence for a while.

'You will be expelled.' Ni'awtu said. 'And then if you come again, he no ask questions if one of the people kill you.' My eyes widened. 'Come.' She said. 'Now we go to decide.'

The meeting, if you could call it that, was held at the bottom on the tree, the same place we were before. The same amount of Na'vi, if not more, we cramped into the base, making the place feel stuffy and too hot. The leader that we had seen yesterday, who Ni'awtu had called Akwey, seemed more imposing than the day before, and a woman, with tribal jewelry hung around her neck. She had an air of importance about her that seemed bigger than Akwey's. They made quite the powerful couple. I had a bitter taste in my mouth. They were talking in Na'vi, and I couldn't help but feel that the meeting would have gone on just fine without us. It seemed Akwey had a permanent frown on his face. The rest of the Na'vi were silent. Ni'awtu and Leyra were taking an active part in the conversation. By their gestures, it seemed that only Ni'awtu was on our side. I already had a sense of impending doom when, to my surprise, Akwey started speaking to us in English.

'Humans.' His voice was deep and commanding. 'Why are you here?'

Hilton spoke for us.

'There is a jail.'

It seemed as if he didn't understand. His frown grew deeper. Ni'awtu leaned to us.

'What is jail?' she asked.

'A place where humans keep…other humans.' I said. 'Locked away.' Ni'awtu translated that into Na'vi. The woman beside Akwey scowled at us and said something in Na'vi. The conversations carried on before the woman spoke in English.

'Then why you here?' she asked.

I shuffled my feet. 'It's a…bad place. Many humans are killed there.' Again the conversations continued. Leyra talked to the woman, presumably trying to persuade her to exile us. I bit my lip. Finally, after what seemed like an age of talking in English, translating into Na'vi and back again sometimes, Akwey spoke to us.

'Humans!' he said, silencing the other Na'vi. 'My mate has spoken. I agree. Humans…humans…' he spoke in Na'vi to Ni'awtu. She translated for him.

'Dwight…Richard…' she sighed. I felt a tingle of anticipation. Her shoulders dropped. 'You are no longer welcome in the Omaticaya clan. I will take you back to place of humans. You are never to return.'

I didn't really feel any strong emotions when the verdict was passed, much like when we had been taken away by the now-dead guards. The Ikran flight wasn't thrilling anymore, the excitement leaving me, giving way to just fear. It was only when we touched down, Leyra landing somewhat harder than Ni'awtu, that I felt a pang of sadness. Never to return? Seemed like our forest adventures where over. I felt sick. Where would we go now? I supposed that we could still go into the forest but it was with regret that I had to accept that I wasn't going to see Ni'awtu again. Never ride an Ikran again. I couldn't say I was too sad to accept that. I never was much of a flyer. Ni'awtu's face was grim. I wanted to say goodbye somehow, but couldn't find the words. All I could manage was

'Bye, then.' Hilton scowled at me.

'That's no way to treat a lady, Dwight.' He joked. He turned to Ni'awtu. 'Thank you. For letting us stay in the clan for a night.'

She shrugged.

'There is no goodbye,' she smiled. 'I will see you again, humans.' She whispered so that Leyra wouldn't hear. I grinned. With that, she got onto her Ikran, made a cry, and flew off into the sky, Leyra following just behind her.

'Not too bad, then.' Hilton said. I laughed and turned, walking back towards the prison. Never thought I'd say that.

Getting back into the prison was just as easy as getting out. We managed to make it back inside without much fuss, giving our exopacks to the same guard that we'd taken them from. He didn't acknowledge us, just shifted the exopacks on the floor to behind him, out of sight. As luck would have it, we had entered just as the other prisoners were coming in to eat. My stomach grumbled at the thought of food, and I realized that I wouldn't be able to eat, as I hadn't been mining. But I still wanted to find Thomas. We made our way through the sea of orange, trying to look as if we hadn't spent the night in the forest. When we reached Thomas he looked shocked.

'Jesus, guys! You're here!' he cried, raising off of his seat. 'I thought…well, you know…' he grinned sheepishly. Hilton patted his arm.

'We're fine, Tom.'

'You look like hell.' He said, looking at me. I suppose I wouldn't look too pretty, a whole night in the forest without any beauty sleep. We sat down and told him of our time in the forest, eager to here his reaction. After he'd heard it all he sighed.

'I don't know how you guys can do it.' He said.

'What do you mean?'

'You can just go out there easily. I mean, you spent the night with the Na'vi for Gods sake!'

'Keep it down, man.'

'Sorry. But you know what I mean.' He stared at his food in silence for a time, spooning up the mush and letting it slop back into the bowl.

'I've been thinking…' Thomas looked up at us, frowning. 'I might come with you next time you go out, if…if that's okay with you.'

I blinked, surprised.

'Sure, Tom.' Hilton said.

'I didn't want to go out before, because…'

'You don't have to tell us if you don't want to, Thomas.' I said. He shook his head.

'No, I want to tell you about it. I've never told anyone.' He took a long breath, looking sideways at a man sitting not far from him. 'Meet me in the exercise yard later. I'll tell you then.'

Later, Thomas told us why he was reluctant to go out not the forest.

'It was before I met you guys that I knew Ron, he was a friend of mine back on Earth that got sent here with me. We were pretty close, him and me. We'd always mine together. One mining day, I accidentally tripped up and knocked into him, and knocked over a cart. Nothing much happened after that, apart from about a week later. These guys came in to the mess hall, one short, one with this beard.

'They say that we've gotta go with them. We say all right, maybe we're just going to get our passes revoked for a while or something. But they lead us outside, into the forest. You know the guys I'm talking about. They…they bundled us in a van and took us someplace. We argued some, I mean, it's inevitable right? We didn't know what the hell was going on; of course we were going to argue.

'Then, we got taken out and I saw the forest. Beautiful, beautiful place. You've seen it for yourselves, I don't have to explain it to you. The one with the beard hands me a pipe, a big rusty one, and growls in my ear. Break his legs, he tells me. Course I say no, but he puts a gun to my head. So…I did it, guys. I'm not proud. The short one held him against a tree and I beat into his legs, apologizing, saying I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But he just keeps screaming.

'So I break both his legs. They laugh, and take us back to the prison. Ron gets stabbed a week after. That's why I didn't want to go back. I never saw him again at the prison, just his dead body. The last words I said was I'm sorry. That's why I didn't want to go back. It'd bring back memories.'

'Geez, Thomas, I'm sorry…'

'No.' He stared me straight in the eyes. 'You've got nothing to be sorry about. I'm coming with you. Face my fears, and all that. I'd be mad to turn up an opportunity like this.'

Hilton nodded.

I still admire Thomas to this day. I don't blame him for doing what he did. I admire him for facing his fears and speaking to us. I admire him for a lot of reasons. But it was a mistake. It was a mistake taking him to the forest. If we didn't, maybe thinks wouldn't have turned out how they did. But that's the way of the universe, I guess. Life's a bitch, then you die.


	14. Chapter 14: Perfectly In Tune

**Thank you for the reviews! I love reading them and seeing that people like my story :)**

* * *

><p>A day or two after I'd been expelled from the Omaticaya Deibel came to my cell. It was an early visit for him; I was splashing water over my face when I heard the telltale echoing of his shiny, polished shoes along with the harsher sounds of the footsteps of his guards. The noise of his shoes was a sharp one, and I couldn't mistake it for anything else. Every time I heard the noise, it sent a little shiver down my spine, and I licked my gum where the tooth that he knocked out should have been. I waved my arms around and prepared to see warden Deibel. He came into sight, not hurrying, his blue suit as pristine as his shoes. As he walked in he brushed off a speck of dust. I looked down at my dirty jumpsuit, badly in need of a clean, and smiled. He must hate just looking at me. It was worth being dirty just to know that he wouldn't like it. I wasn't about to start liking him just because he'd let me enter the forest. Just like you're not going to like or trust an enemy that gives you an extravagant present. He made a laughable attempt to smile at me as he entered. It was less of a smile and more of a slight up turning of his mouth. Maybe he couldn't smile unless he was hurting someone. I wouldn't put it past him, he seemed to smile all the time when he beat me up. He cleared his throat, his hands behind his back.<p>

'Dolton…good morning.' He muttered. I didn't say anything, looking at him and his guards apprehensively. An awkward look passed his face before he continued.

'You've been with the Na'vi, Dolton?' I stepped back a little, stunned. How did he know? I asked him that.

'Don't think I haven't seen you. You and that blue…' he paused, thinking. '…woman.'

'How?'

'Come, come now Dolton, you're an intelligent man. My office is far up and you don't exactly pick the most discreet position to say your little good-byes.' I sighed, wanting to sit down but knowing he'd take offence from it. Maybe I should have, just to piss him off. I was in that kind of mood. But I still wanted to keep my remaining teeth, so I was sensible.

'Yeah, I've met a Na'vi.' I sniffed. Deibel's eyes seemed to light up at that. I ventured a: 'what's it to you?'

'Oh, Dolton, it's everything to me. So, tell me…what are they like?'

'I'm sorry?'

'What are they like?' he replied, enunciating every word like I was a child struggling to learn math. 'What's their personality, things. Like. That.'

'Just…kinda like humans, I guess.' I shrugged.

'Really? How like humans?' I continued to answer his questions, puzzled at his motives but continuing anyway.

'Just like you or me, 'cept with tails.' He tried to crack a smile but failed. Being nice was really hard for him, huh?

'So they don't act erratic, or have any weird things that they do?'

'No. They act just like a primitive man, maybe more civilized.'

'Really? Fascinating…' he stared off into the distance. 'Just like humans? And they speak English?'

I nodded. 'Some do, most speak their own language.'

'Hmmm…'

'This all you came for?' I asked.

'Huh?' Deibel shook his head slightly, coming out of his trance.

'Is this all you came for?' I repeated, using the patronizing voice he was so fond of.

'Yes, yes. Well done, Dolton.' He reached in his pocket, took out a pack of cigarettes and offered me one. 'Cigarette?'

I stared at his hand in disbelief.

'I guess not.' He tried to smile again, gave up, and walked out of my cell, leaving me standing there, wondering what the hell just happened.

I told Thomas and Hilton what had happened when we were mining. Thomas was surprised, Hilton wasn't.

'I wonder why he was doing that?' Thomas wondered aloud.

'Isn't it obvious? He's up to something.' Hilton said.

'Well, yeah, that's what I thought, but I don't know what.'

'Is he still letting us go out?' Thomas whispered. I nodded. He smiled, relieved. He had been looking forward to leaving the prison ever since he'd told us about his friend and 'the incident', as we deemed it now. I was happy to see him looking happy again. He had been down a lot recently.

'Well, I wouldn't tell him too much more.' Hilton said, biting his lip. Thomas agreed.

'That's what I was thinking.'

'Just don't get yourself killed.'

'Pfft. I'll try.'

'I mean it.'

'I know.'

The evening we went out with Thomas, the man in question was giddy and excited like a little boy at Christmas. I never did find out how old he was, but he seemed to look older some days, but every now and then we were reminded of his youth on occasions like this. Couldn't blame him, I was pretty much like this when I first went out, maybe even more so. The guard wasn't even surprised when he saw we'd brought another person. Just went away for a second or two into a heavily locked door and brought another exopack, never once saying a word, never once changing his expression. We went out the main gate, the same way we always went. We walked up the road and then down the road we had walked once before, Thomas in tow. The plants hung over the slight path that had been formed naturally, green leaves with sharp edges threatening anyone who might touch them. We reached a clearing, the setting sun casting a warm orange glow over the forest. Despite the nature of the forest, I felt rather safe and content. We reached a clearing full of different plants that dwarfed us by many meters. There were tall, orange plants that went up in a spiral, the rays of the sun shining through the leaves of the trees and illuminating parts of the plants. There were small plants that looked how an earth plant would have looked in terms of scale, yellow buds rising from little cups made by the one long leaf. There were these plants and many besides, rendering this clearing particularly beautiful. Along with the plants, Ni'awtu was sitting down against a tree, her hands stroking the grass at the bottom of it.

She looked up and smiled when we approached, her face lighting up and making her look strikingly pretty. Smiling suited her. Her hair was braided and hung over her shoulders, shifting as she moved. She wore a necklace with some sort of dark green stone hung between a piece of string. I wasn't surprised that Thomas was just behind us, staring with his mouth open. This was the place we had agreed to meet the last time we had come out to the forest, a good compromise because it wasn't too far away from the prison or the Omaticaya Hometree.

'Hope we haven't kept you waiting too long.' I smiled, still feeling a bit nervous around her and how she seemed to get along with us so easily.

'No, I have not been here long.' She replied, not getting up, allowing us to look her in the eye without straining our necks. She brushed some dirt off of her legs and looked behind us. Her face went from surprised, to angry in half a second. She leapt up and crouched low on her legs, hissing. I jumped backwards, scared by this sudden display of anger. My hands were shaking. Hilton had his arms out, seeming to be as surprised as I was.

'Woah, woah, what's wrong?' Hilton cried, breathing heavily. Thomas was still where he was standing before, now in full sight because we'd jumped back.

'Who is this?' Ni'awtu snarled, her sharpened teeth on show.

'He's just our friend! He's okay!' I said.

Ni'awtu seemed to calm a little, but still didn't come from her aggressive pose.

'He isn't going to do anything. Right, Thomas?'

Thomas just nodded slowly, looking as if he'd had the fear of God put in him. He looked as if he could just run off at any moment. Ni'awtu slowly came up from her pose, standing now. She gave a look of contempt at Thomas.

'I do not trust him.' She whispered.

'We…don't except you to.'

'Why does he come here?'

'He wanted to see the forest.' Hilton said. 'He's okay, he's our friend.' Ni'awtu continued to eye him suspiciously, calming down a little.

'I don't trust him.' She said again.

'I know.' I said softly. 'You don't have to.'

She turned and seemed to breathe heavily for a few seconds, then muttered something in Na'vi. I didn't ask her what she'd said.

'Alright then. Come with me.'

It was night when we found one of the lizards. Ni'awtu called them _Kenten, _or something like that. Thomas had hung behind us for the evening, not speaking but always looking at Ni'awtu, watching her. I've got to say it made me feel uncomfortable, whether he was my friend or not. She pointed at the thin creature, which was resting on very thin branch. It looked remarkably like the bark itself, it's skin the same colour. On the end of it's limbs it seemed to have hands that looked like leafs. It was quite the exotic lizard. Then Ni'awtu showed us what it did. She touched it with a long, slender finger and suddenly the thing that looked like a stick on its back sprung into life.

It extended into something resembling a sparkling, shining, multicolored Chinese lantern as it flew off to a different plant. In the space of about five seconds, the lizard went from being dull, to beautiful then back to dull again. I laughed. It was a marvel to look at, and it seemed to bring the child out in Ni'awtu as she ran into some vegetation. Suddenly several more flew away, their colors showing for a few brilliant seconds. Ni'awtu laughed, a high, sweet sound that was perfectly in tune with the fan lizards. I looked back at Thomas. He wasn't smiling.

We got back to the Prison just before lights out. Thomas muttered something to us before storming off.

'What the hell is up with him?' I whispered. Hilton just shrugged.


	15. Chapter 15: Oel Ngati Kameie

Our daughter never was born. She never got to see the Earth, her mummy and daddy. Never got to see Pandora. I was ashamed that I couldn't tell you how old she would be now. Spend time in prison and that'll do it to you. I never even knew how long I was in there. I'd like to think that I thought about my wife and daughter every day, but that's probably a lie. With the forest and Ni'awtu, it seemed the only time I'd ever been really happy since the incident. I mulled it over in my head a lot. Did I kill my wife? I didn't think so. But put a man in jail and after a time he doesn't even know if he did the crime, he just knows that he's sorry. For me, it was a jumble of events. I remember a noise, in the night. A crashing of some sort. Emma stirred a little. I remember shouting, screaming. I remember the smell of blood. I remember waking up and seeing the police in my house, arresting me. Seeing blood under the door. The only reason I know that I didn't do it is that I couldn't. Not to Emma. If you believ me or nor, that's your business, but let it be known that I couldn't have killed my wife. I don't think I've got it in me.

The sky was dull and gray on the day when Jessie Nixon tried to kill me. The clouds looked heavy and dark, making the prison exercise yard look even more drab than usual. It didn't dampen my feelings however- I was on top of the world. I was becoming more comfortable with Ni'awtu every time we visited her and life was good outside prison. I have to say that at that point, escape wasn't in my mind. I was perfectly content staying on Pandora, going out into the forest and meeting our Na'vi friend. It hardly felt like a prison anymore. But of course, something had to go wrong. It _was _a prison after all. That, and Deibel would most likely come and ask about Ni'awtu, and I had no plans to tell him any more than I already had. I didn't know what he was up to, but I was afraid I might have already told him too much. I wouldn't be surprised if he restricted us to the prison, never going out to the forest again. I didn't want that to happen, but I also didn't want to hurt Ni'awtu. It was a hell of a situation I was in, without Jessie Nixon. I was in the showers when Nixon came to me.

The showers were mostly empty, with me and a few other guys in there. I was getting dressed into a clean jumpsuit, the orange garish as always, when I saw the man in question walk slowly up to me. His hands were behind his back, and his head had been recently shaved. I sniffed when I saw him, wondering what he wanted. I kept my muscles tense, ready to move in case he tried anything.

'Dolton.' He said.

'What do you want, Nixon?' I asked simply, staring at his hands behind his back.

'Oh nothing, juts a friendly chat.'

'Let's cut the bullshit, Nixon. You wouldn't pee on me if I were on fire. I ask again. What do you want?' I tried to sound intimidating, putting on the voice I used before fights back on Earth. It seemed to have a minor effect, only making him scowl.

'Fine, Dolton? You want me to tell you why I'm here?' He walked right up to me, his face now only inches from mine. I did my best not to step back. 'I've seen you. You and your little friend, leaving the goddamn prison. I don't know what the hell you're up to, but I want in on it.' I rolled my eyes, trying to look like I wasn't scared. I had knocked this man out before, I could do it again if I wanted to.

'Even if I was going out of the prison, or cutting a deal, I certainly wouldn't tell you about it.'

'I'll report you.' He tried.

'Go ahead.' He backed off a bit.

'You seem so cocky, Dwight. You need someone to take your head out of your own arse.' He sneered.

He suddenly raised his hand. A flash of steel brought my attention to a grubby, makeshift knife. He tried to lift it, but I already had my hand on his wrist. I was sweating, reminded of what Hilton had said about the knives inmates make:

_The blades blunt so you have to stab them, then make a hole with the knife and stab upwards._

I tried not to think of Nixon ripping a hole in my chest, so I held onto his wrist tight, my hands steady. I raised my eyebrows. He looked down at my hand. He tried to move his arm again but he couldn't. Angered, his face centimeters from my own, our noses almost touching, he tried to punch me with his left hand. I raised up my arm, mirroring him, and blocked the punch with my wrist. Quickly, so he didn't try again, I moved my wrist, kept my grip, and spun around him, pushing towards the wall. The others in the room were jeering and whooping now. I was left in a position with me behind him, pushing his arm up his back so he couldn't move.

'I don't know what the hell you're trying to do,' I growled in his ear. 'But know that if you try this again, I will kill you.' I'd never killed a man before. It felt strange threatening someone with death.

'I..' Nixon's sentence was cut short when I pushed his arm further up his back, making him scream.

'I don't want to hear it. Remember this day.' I snarled, leaving him and striding out of the shower room, shaking slightly.

'I am glad you did not bring that other human with you. I do not trust him.' Ni'awtu said to me and Hilton.

'So you keep saying.' I said back.

'It is true.' Ni'awtu shot back, stepping over a log towards the lake. The sun was high up in the clear sky, the air still smelling of rain. A rainbow hung over the lake, adding more color to the already colorful scene.

'Why not, exactly?' Hilton asked.

'He is a human. I do not know him.'

'So were we.'

'You happened to be there when we killed the two tawtute. I watched you after.' She looked at me, her face serious. 'You are good men. Strong hearts. You mean us no harm. I see this inside.' She put a hand on her chest, sitting down next to the water. 'I do not see this in him. Dangerous. Bad.'

I looked at Hilton. He was biting his lip.

'Thomas is an alright guy. He wouldn't hurt a fly.' He said. Ni'awtu put her bow down on the grass.

'He can hurt. I see this inside.' She said again. 'I feel it, he can hurt.'

'Like a hunch, then?' Ni'awtu looked at me confused.

'Human phrase.' I said.

'A hunch?'

'Yeah. Like feeling it, in your stomach.'

'I think I understand. I have a…hunch.' She looked at me for approval. I nodded. She shook her head.

Later on, when we were saying good-byes, Ni'awtu did something that seemed peculiar at the time. She touched his hand to her head, and said something that I now know is spelt:

'Oel ngati kameie.' I looked up at her, puzzled.

'What did you say?' Hilton asked. Ni'awtu looked sheepish as she tried to explain.

'It is…something…you would not understand.'

'At least tell us what it means in English.'

She bit her lip, then said it in a soft voice.

'It means I see you.'

'So, like a greeting.'

'Almost. It is not seeing with eyes, it is…' she placed her hand on her chest.

'…Seeing with your heart?' I ventured. She smiled, relieved.

'Something like that.'

'So how do you say it in Na'vi?'

She repeated the phrase, and after watching Hilton and I trying to say it, started laughing. I gave a small laugh.

'I suppose I see you will have to do.' Hilton said.

'Yes. It will.' She beamed.

We saw Al again a few days after. Thomas no longer ate with us, and I hadn't seen him for days. I was getting worried. Al didn't say much when I saw him. I was out in the exercise yard, and he just walked up to me. He looked older every time I saw him, and his age showed in his walk as he hobbled up to me. I was ready to walk off when he said my name, forcing me to pull back. I guess some manners don't die so easily.

'What do you want, Al?' I asked.

'I wanted to tell you something, Dwight.' He coughed, raising his hand even though he had an exopack on. I sighed.

'I'm listening.'

'It's…it's Deibel.' He said in between coughs. 'He's…' he burst into a fit of coughing again.

'Jesus, are you alright?' I asked, putting my hand on his back. I saw bruises on his face, fresh, big ones. I asked about them.

'It's Deibel!' he said again. 'He's doing this, you've gotta listen to me, Dwight.' He started coughing again.

'Calm down.' I said. 'Take it slowly.' Al raised his head, his eyes desperate.

'He's coming again. He said to a guy he was going to get more…information.' I widened my eyes.

'How the hell did you hear this?'

'I was in his office, he was talking to me, then just left me. Sometimes he beats me up.'

'Christ.'

'Listen, Dwight, if I don't see you again, I'm sorry, okay?' Tears welled in his eyes. 'I didn't know, I didn't…' he coughed again. I didn't say anything, shocked into silence.

And true enough, Deibel came later that day. I'll never forget it. The day he went too far.

The sound of his boots. The smell of the prison. The feel of my bed. The taste of disgusting prison food. And finally, the sight of the warden, coming into my cell. Always a pleasure.

'Dolton.' He made no attempt at smiling now. Made no attempt at niceties. I didn't even acknowledge his presence.

'Dolton, it looks to me as if you've been out into the forest a great deal lately. That should mean you've gathered new information. What have you got for me?' he looked up at me, his eyes brimming with anticipation. They dropped a little when I didn't say anything.

'Okay then, let me start. What is that woman's name?'

I didn't say anything again, regretting it a little now that I could see his rising anger but too far ahead to back down now. Deibel frowned.

'You don't want to do this, Dwight,' he said. 'You don't want to see me angry.' He was pacing the room now. 'I'll try one last time. What. Is. Her. Name?' His eyes were blazing with fury now, and his fists were clenching and unclenching. I reminded myself that I was protecting Pandora, protecting Ni'awtu by doing this. I gulped.

'Fine. We'll have to do it the hard way then.' In an instant, his fingers made a gesture and his guards were onto me, punching me again and again. I tried fighting back at first, got a few good punches in, but I was overwhelmed. I was on the ground now, head ringing, the taste of blood in my mouth. They were kicking me, all three of them. I spat out blood, my insides aching. Pain arched through my body, the most intense pain I've ever known. Far away, as if it was in a different dimension, I heard Deibels voice ringing in between kicks.

'I'll. Make. You. Sorry!'

A kick landed on my arm and I felt it crack with excruciating pain. I couldn't move it. I tried to curl up into a ball, protecting my insides, but it was useless. I felt my leg break, then something inside me cracked. I tried to scream but didn't have the energy. It seemed a lifetime away when they finally stopped. I felt someone's warm spit on my face, and that voice, ringing in my ears. My vision was blurry and I could only make out vague shapes.

'So hi to your wife for me.' Deibel sneered before they strode out of my cell. They left me there, on the concrete, every part of my body aching. I felt tired, so tired. I wanted nothing more than to just rest my eyes for a little while. And then, that was the moment. That was the moment I knew I was going to die. I couldn't move anything. It was just a matter of time. I said my good-byes in my head. My last thought was that of Ni'awtu, and how she's explained the phrase to us. I whispered, the words almost dying on my lips. They came out as quiet as can be, more of a wheezing than anything.

'I see you.'

The last sound I heard was that of footsteps, ringing in the darkness. The last words I heard were those of someone I knew, but couldn't quite put a face to the voice.

'Jesus Christ...'


	16. Chapter 16: Can I Help You?

I don't remember much after I was left for dead by Deibel. I've thought about it a lot, managing to piece things together in chronological order. I remember lying there, on the cold, hard concrete with pain shooting up every time I tried to move, wondering if this was the end. I'd always thought it would be a touch more glamorous than this, like you see in the movies. But I guess that's life, or death if you prefer. Sometimes people just die, doesn't have to be spectacular or remarkable. Laying there, not knowing how many bones I'd broken, staring at my almost black blood not far from my head. I seemed to transcend away from the pain, knowing that my body hurt more than anything but almost not caring. You certainly don't get used to pain, I'll tell you. At least I didn't. I managed to cough, and blood spluttered from my mouth and onto the floor. I groaned, closing my eyes and feeling an irresistible urge to sleep, to descend into darkness where it wouldn't hurt. Dying really is a unique experience. Nobody knows the answer to what happens after, and we all find out. I wondered if there really were Gods, and if I died on Pandora, would I go to Eywa? I vaguely remember hearing footsteps, rushing and words shouted, someone saying 'Jesus Christ' Again and again and again. I heard them say my name before I surrendered to the darkness.

**Hang in there, Dwight, hang in there.**

I came to when someone was picking me up, still in the same cell, still wallowing in my blood. An arm shifted under my back, causing pain to erupt in several places. I managed to groan quietly, tried to say something but it only came out as a croak. Another arm was put under my legs, and I was lifted up, like a baby. Like a bride on her wedding day. I remember being moved, someone was carrying me out of my cell. I saw some people whose faces I didn't recall, some casual acquaintances. I was being taken down the stairs, away from my cell. I didn't know who was carrying me, so I tried to look at his face. My vision was blurry, and I couldn't make out who it was. I only could figure out that I knew them. If I was wrong, I didn't know where the hell they were taking me. A…nurse? A hospital? Ridiculous. No one cared about the prisoners here. I was still sleepy, could feel that the back of my head was wet. I thought of Ni'awtu. Where was she?

**Don't you die on me, you bastard. Not now.**

_I remember how I'd met Emma. I met her in a bar, that Old Faithful meeting place you here in so many stories. It wasn't anything expensive or particularly fancy. It didn't have as much technology compared to the other, new wave bars that were springing up everywhere. It didn't have Tv screens for walls or anything like that. Just a good, inexpensive drinking place. I was out with some friends of mine. I call them friends, but they were anything but. You know when you find yourself in a rut, going out to the same places with the same friends. The people there couldn't really be called friends, just a group of people you've become gradually used to, and have known long enough but you don't really like them, per say. They're not the kind of people you'd jump in front of a bullet for. They'd make offensive jokes I didn't really care for, and tease women too much, but going out with them was easier than finding new friends, and at least they bought a round of drinks every now and then._

_ It's amazing how a worst enemy can become a best friend in the space of a few drinks. So, you know, there we were, sitting in a corner booth, when Mike, he spots a woman at the bar. She has these stunning brown eyes, like the colour of chocolate. The guys bicker over themselves about who gets to go over to her. Mike said it should be him because he pointed her out, Rob says that he saw he first. So they argue, and I'm just looking at those eyes, thinking how pretty she is. I'm not saying its love at first sight, I'm just appreciating a woman in a bar. So whilst they're arguing, I'm thinking about how I've not really had anyone for a while, and though I'm nervous, I tell myself to man up and just walk over to her. So I get up, some of the guys complain, some make stupid drunken noises or holler._

_ I maneuver through the tables, and lean on the bar next to this woman with brown eyes, brown hair. She's a fine woman, and I find myself smiling nervously, thinking she's ignoring me even though she can see me out of the corner of her eye. I clear my throat and her head turns in my direction. I just stand there, like an idiot, trying to look suave. She simply asks me a question:_

'_Can I help you?'_

**You are not going to die Dwight, don't worry, don't worry.**

I came to and was still inside the prison. I was still being carried, and we were at a door. I heard some voices, arguing loudly. The man who was holding me seemed furious. The argument culminated in the man giving us exopacks. The guy carrying me put one on me clumsily, my head not co-operating. He put one on himself, and the door opened. We went outside, and the sun was blinding. I have to close my eyes, my vision red. I remember breathing with some difficulty. The guy started running, running towards a gate. I heard fumbling, gates being opened, heavy breathing. Then the man stops. He stays stood where he is, then tries to move ahead. He failed, then I feel him dropping me.

I thumped to the ground and grunted, my wounds flaring up again. I couldn't breathe. I could feel the air going in, but my lungs didn't seem to be working. The man next to me was on the ground as well, clutching at his exopack. I figured out that something was wrong, even in the state I was. There was only one explanation. The exopacks were faulty. We were breathing in Pandorean air. As I went unconscious, I could hear more footsteps rushing towards us.

**Damnit…Deibel…**

_So the woman at the bar with the brown eyes has just asked me a question, and I don't know what to say. I freeze, becoming nervous. I decide to say the thing that seems natural. I say:_

_'Can I buy you a drink?' Her mouth curves upward into a smile, a smile that really suits her._

_'Well,' she says, 'Since you're asking so nicely, yes, you can.' I grin like an idiot. I gesture over to the bartender and order some drinks. I look over at my friends and I see them looking at me intently, like they're just waiting for her to throw a drink in my face and slap me._

_'So, what's a girl like you doing here?' I regret saying it as soon as it comes out of my mouth. I see her frown a bit, and I just stay there, waiting for her hand to strike me. Instead, she smirks and says:_

_'What's your name?'_

_'Dwight.' I say nervously._

_'Hello Dwight. Nice to meet you. I'm Emma.' She holds out her hand. I smile, relived that she'd just chosen to ignore me. I take her hand in mine, a slender white hand, but she still gives a firm handshake._

_'Hi, Emma.' I say. She says something back immediately._

_'What do you mean a girl like me?' she makes quotation marks in the air. I gulp, embarrassed that she doesn't actually ignore my previous comment. I want to shuffle away, back to my seat but don't let myself._

_'I…' I struggle for an answer. She laughs, touching my shoulder. Her eyes don't look at me as much as they look through me._

_'I'm only playing, Dwight. I'm blind, you could have said that.'_

_'You're blind?' she leans against the bar, hands propping her chin up. She flutters her eyelids._

_'Can't you tell?'_

_'No, I mean…no!'_

_'That's cute.' She smiles again, brushing her hair behind her ear. I smile back, even though she can't see me._

**What the hell…?**

I woke up again, with a massive breath of air. I sucked the air in, the oxygen feeling cold and good in my lungs. If I was in my right mind, I would've wondered how the hell I could breathe, but I wasn't. I hear some mumbling, someone talking to themselves in confusion. I remember that we were near a place we'd been before. I saw a broken fence, and beyond a broken, dilapidated building. I wanted to close my eyes again, but I was disturbed by the man picking me up again, like before. He ran and ran, towards the open gate, and into the forest with me in his arms.

**It's going to be okay, It's going to be okay.**

_We are talking now, and the conversation comes fast. As I'm talking to her, I suddenly think of something else to talk about. The opposite of having nothing to talk about, and it feels wonderful. Cutting herself off mid sentence, Emma asks:_

_'Oh, what time is it?' I look at my watch, surprised at the time._

_'Half twelve.' I say. She frowns._

_'Little later than usual,' she says. 'Maybe a little drunker too.' She smiles, draining her glass. 'You know what, Dwight? I like you.'_

_'Why thank you miss.' I laugh after saying that._

_'You know what? I like you so much I'm going to give you my home number.' She looks around her. 'Got a pen?' I laugh._

_'Nope.'_

_She smiles._

_'Well then you're just gonna have to memorize it.'_

**You've got to help us, he's dying!**

I woke up again. I was surprised to find myself in a forest, with something big and blue in front of the man who was carrying me. They were talking swiftly. I remember being transferred, my body still hurting everywhere. I couldn't move anything. I was at the mercy of this big blue creature I was being transferred to. She jogged off further into the forest.

**Tawtute…**

_Emma and I are stood outside her house, after dinner for our second date. We're both a little bit drunk. The night is cool on my skin and she smiles at me at she unlocks the door. She turns to me, her back against the door now._

_'I had a good time tonight.'_

_'Me too.'_

_She steps forward, down the steps towards me. The air tingles between us. She finds my shoulders with her hands, puts her arms around me. The embrace feels good. She lifts her mouth up to my ear and whispers in a deep voice._

_'Don't leave me alone, Dwight.'_

_She pulls back her head, her hands stroking the back of my neck. She leans forward, her lips just inches from mine. My heart is pumping, my skin has Goosebumps over it. Her hand keeps stroking the back of my neck, her body close to mine, closer than we've ever been. A car whizzes past behind us. I look at her face, licking my lips, nervous as hell. She starts leaning forward, and I close the distance, not being able to withstand the tension. Our lips touch, and we kiss passionately as we walk backwards into her house._

**He's waking up! Dwight, you're here! Dwight?**

'Dwight?' I opened my eyes, my throat thick, my body aching like I'd just been run over. I blinked a couple of times, trying to see where I was. I see that I'm lying on leaves. I looked up, and found that Hilton was standing over me.

'Hilton?' I managed to croak. He beamed.

'Dwight! You're okay!' he shouted. Someone next to him whispered to be quiet. He grinned, looking back at me.

'I thought you were going to die, buddy.' I tried to raise my head, trying to look at the other people. I caught a glimpse of my saviors. I smiled when I saw Ni'awtu. Then I looked to my left. Leyra was there as well. I dropped my head, breathing heavily.

'Take it easy, Dwight, you're going to recover. You won't believe what happened to the exopacks…'


	17. Chapter 17: Ayoeng Kin Eywa

'So we were given faulty exopacks?'

Hilton nodded.

'I think we passed out. We woke up again, though. With new exopacks and everything.' Hilton rubbed the back of his head. 'I don't like this.'

'Why not? We were saved right?'

'Sure, we were. But that raises a question. Who saved us?' I licked my lips, thinking. Every inch of body was hurting with a dull ache, and I tried my best not to move. My arm was in a sort of primitive sling, and I was lying on soft ground. My head was pounding. My mouth was dry and my voice cracked almost every time I talked. I was in the worst condition I'd ever been, if my memory served me right. But I was glad to be alive. With every fibre of my broken body, I was glad that I had been helped. First by Hilton, then presumably by the Na'vi. It tore my heart up thinking that someone here didn't want me to die. A thought occurred to me.

'Hilton, where are we?' I asked. The place was certainly a lot different to any other of the places I'd been. From what I could make out, we were probably under a tree. Long, white vines hung down from the branches instead of leaves. They looked delicate and they hung all around us, effectively blocking our view of whatever was beyond it.

'Tree of Souls.' Another voice answered instead of Hilton. I recognised it as Leyra's. She spoke again, this time more to herself than to anyone in particular. 'Tawtute…' I had never heard of the place, but just being in the presence of the tree, this tree of souls, was comforting. Inside here, I felt safe, safer than I had ever felt in the Forest. Safer than I had felt in the Na'vi camp. Safer than the prison. I tried to shift my body so I could look all around me, but Hilton gently pushed me to the ground. Pain flared up in my shoulder and my arm, burning pain that was sharper than the dull ache. I fought down a whimper.

'Don't move any more than you have to, Dwight.' He said quietly. He looked up to his left, talking to someone else. 'Are we alone?' I heard another voice, Ni'awtu's this time.

'For now.' Leyra came into my view, her face fixed in a scowl.

'We should not be here!' She pointed a finger at Ni'awtu

'Lu fnu! Ayoeng kin eywa.' Ni'awtu replied, coming in to view as well. She looked at me for a second, her eyes full of worry. It felt weird that they were going to so much trouble for me. I would have told them to leave me, I'd be alright, but I managed to swallow my pride. I knew that I was relying on these people, these aliens. It didn't feel as scary as I thought it would be. I had come to think of Ni'awtu as a friend, and as such thought of her of a human. It was too easy to generalize with an alien species, and let instincts come into play. If I had been listening to raw instincts all the time, I would be hiding, hoping that I never saw a Na'vi again. But the wonderful thing is that I didn't. That one of them was my friend. And I was beginning to think that they were more intelligent than humans. They hadn't leeched off of their world.

'Utral swok!' Leyra shot back. And so on and so forth. It turned into a whispered argument in Na'vi, neither me nor Hilton having a clue what they were saying. My eyelids were heavy, and I felt sleepy. I fell into a slumber.

When I woke up I was being carried again.

'Wha…' I tried to ask, but was cut off by Hilton.

'Shh!' He took me behind a rock a lot bigger than the both of us sitting not far from the tree. He lowered me slowly to the ground, my body hurting. I whispered as quietly as I could.

'What's going on?' Hilton didn't reply, his eyes wide and his head tilted to the side as if he was listening for something. I heard the faint sound of a conversation. He turned his eyes to me.

'Someone came. We've got to hide.' I nodded, remembering that technically, we were banned from the Omaticaya clan. I thought about the prison and Deibel. It was clear that he had meant to kill me that day, and that he had rigged the exopacks so that they wouldn't work. His last words to me rung throughout my skull.

_Say hi to your wife for me_

I shuddered. I guessed he really wanted to know about the Na'vi, then. If he was willing to kill me. I found myself smiling at the thought of his face when he saw I was alive. Although through this experience, if you can call it that, one thing was made clear to me. I couldn't stay on this planet. I had entertained my thoughts about this for a while now, thinking that I could just stay in the prison and go out to the forest. Now I knew that this wasn't feasible. Not only did I have a crazy warden trying to kill me, this was an alien planet. Something in my head told me that it was only a matter of time before some beast or other came after us and ripped us apart. As much as I wanted to stay here, with the Na'vi and the forest, I had to leave. I had to escape. Saying it was easy. It was the execution that was the hard part. I spent a while thinking about what I'd do if I got back to Earth, but I quickly stopped those thoughts. I'd cross that bridge when-if I came to it. After a time the conversation stopped and the two Na'vi appeared.

'It is safe now.' Ni'awtu said. I was carried back over to the Tree of Souls.

'How long will we have to be here?' I asked.

'As long as it takes, Dwight.' Ni'awtu replied. 'You are safe here. No animals will attack.' I nodded. For the rest of the day they sat with me, talking. From time to time Ni'awtu did something that I found strange. She would get up, and walk over to one of the vines. She would take her hair, the ponytail that every Na'vi seemed to have, and lift it to one of the vines. Amazingly, horribly, tendrils coming from the hair wrapped around the vines. I found myself watching in amazement and slight disgust when I first saw it. Leyra never did this. With her hair in place, Ni'awtu would talk softly to herself, her eyes closed as if she was praying. I thought better than to ask her about it.

As the sun was disappearing behind the clouds, I was carried behind the rock again. I didn't like being helpless. I wanted to get up and move for myself. I felt like I was too much of a burden, but there wasn't anything I could do about it.

'You will stay here.' Leyra scowled at me.

'Guess I don't have a choice.' I tried to smile. 'You're leaving us?'

'We have to. You are safe.' She was about to walk off, when she leaned back and shot a word at us. 'Stay.'

I sighed. I guess they were just leaving us there. What if another person came? Again, there was nothing I could do. I felt so helpless. I nodded my head at Hilton.

'You should probably be getting back. I don't want to burden you.' Hilton shook his head firmly.

'I'm not going anywhere, Dwight.'

The next night was particularly embarrassing. I was lying awake again, just like I had in the Omaticaya Hometree. I heard someone coming up to the tree. I shook Hilton awake, afraid. My body ached but was in significantly better condition. I couldn't quite walk steadily yet, but I was making a remarkable recovery. I felt a little scared but grateful to whatever was making me heal so quickly. Ni'awtu had brought me water that tasted weird, but no food. I was hungry, but I couldn't eat any Pandorean food. I'd probably die. Or at the least become ill.

'Hilton!' I hissed. 'Hilton!' He woke up suddenly, looking around him and sitting bolt upright.

'What?' he said all too loudly. I clamped a hand over his mouth, putting a finger to mine.

'I think someone's here…' He licked his lips. Someone out there, one person, no… two people, were laughing and giggling together. Hilton made a puzzled face. The voices started whispering now. I was pretty sure it was a man and a woman. The bioluminescence made the Tree glow a bright purple, casting its glow over our exopacks. Hilton made a gesture and leaned his head out just enough to look at what was happening. He looked back, his face twisted into an expression of disgust. I could hear sighing now, and the parts clicked into place.

'They're…' Hilton banged his fists together. I chanced a look myself. Two Na'vi were out there, sitting very close to each other. Their hair was connected with the tendrils, and I was pretty sure that they were kissing. I quickly leaned back behind the rock, my eyes wide, my heart beating. A few seconds passed as Iooked into Hiltons eyes. Then the humour crept up on me. I struggled to keep quiet, spasms of laughter coming up through my body. I lay on the ground, my hand over my mouth, occasionally making a little noise. Hilton was doing the same. I couldn't remember the last time I had laughed this much. It felt good. Hilton's cheeks were red, and tears were streaming down his face. A noise came from behind the rock and I went back into hysterical laughter. Well, they say it's the best medicine.

A few days later I was more or less fully recovered. I was stunned at the rate of my recovery, and to this day I still don't know exactly what happened. I was hungry as hell, and as we were getting ready to leave, something interesting happened. White seed like things started to drop form the sky. They sprouted very thin, white things that almost looked like petals. Instead of just dropping they floated, their petals swaying up and down. They were graceful as they glided down from the sky and landed near me. First one, then a whole bunch, about twenty or so. Some landed on me then stayed there, on my shoulders, on my hands. Most just dropped to the floor. I was about to brush them off when Leyra looked behind and her eyes widened. Then her expression went calm. She came over to me and just looked.

'Wait.' She said as I was going to brush them off. Hilton and Ni'awtu were ahead, not knowing what was happening behind them. Then the seeds just sort of flew away off of my body, floating to different pastures. I wasn't entirely sure what happened, but Leyra lead me off towards the other two. She didn't say another word to me.

The prison. Just looking at the gray, featureless walls made me feel sick. I didn't ever want to go back there, but it was necessary. Besides, my stomach was rumbling pretty badly, and I was prepared to feel a little sick in order to get some food. I had excepted for the guards to be shocked when they saw us, but they weren't. It was just routine as always. Inside, Thomas wasn't there. It was a shame that he hadn't spoken to us ever since that weird day when he first saw Ni'awtu. I wondered what was up with him. Some of my acquaintances were shocked but happy that I was alive, but I wasn't about to tell them how I'd recovered. My nose had been again twisted into a different shape- the curse of being a boxer. The question of how we were saved from certain death was still annoying Hilton. I was curious as well. So a few days after we got back, we went outside., but no to the forest this time. We went out to the place we woke up, and the place that we'd hidden from Deibel. We went to Hell's Gate.

Surprisingly, there was no one guarding Hell's Gate. The dilapidated, run down building was bare, the broken fence the only feasible option of getting in. I didn't know exactly what it was there for, but I guessed that it was some sort of base before the prison was built. I don't know what we expected to find in there, but we were going anyway. I climbed over the broken fence and went in through the broken window that we had used to get in before. The place had a creepy feel to it, like someone should have been there. Like that this place was never meant to be like this. The main building was big, but it looked like before it had been bigger, with some spots of ground just being bare, where a building would have logically been. The sunlight illuminated the first room with natural light. It showed computers littered on the floor, on desks, wires hanging down from the ceilings. It all seemed scarier than the last time I had been here. Of course, now I had the time for my brain to register how creepy it was. Hilton climbed through the window and stood beside me.

'Looks like it's seen better days.' He muttered.

'What exactly are we looking for?' I asked.

'Something. Anything.'

Together, we walked through a different door than we had been through last time. A corridor lay before us, the room going dark before another window lit up the room on the far side. We walked down the corridor, and I looked at the room on my right. Huge, broken tanks were in there, along with broken computer equipment.

'Do you think Jake Sully was here?' Hilton asked me, whispering as though there was someone to hear us. I thought about it.

'Probably. I never paid attention in History.' I whispered back. The room ahead was filled with a sadness of some sort, that made my stomach sink as soon as I entered. I licked my lips.

'You feel that?' I said.

'Feel what?'

'Never mind.'

We branched off in the middle of the room, going different ways. There was a raised platform in the middle, with more broken or just shut down equipment on it. Ahead of me was a wall with a door in it. It would have probably been pressurised back when the base was up and running, but now opened just like a normal door. I had to squint my eyes as I entered the room, as it was darker than the rest of the base. I stepped in, my eyes adjusting to the light. I looked around. It was just a square room with little furniture. Nothing remarkable. I was about to go back when something caught my eye. On the floor, near the door was a packet of some sort. I knelt down, picking it up. It was food packaging, and the residue in it was fresh. I simply stared at it, my mind confused.

'Hilton!' I shouted him, wanting to show him what I'd found. 'Hilt…'

As I turned I heard a shuffling and something cold pressing at the back of my head. Something that felt entirely too much like a gun. A deep, rumbling voice came out from behind me.

'Don't you take another fucking step.'

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry for not updating for a while :)<strong>


	18. Chapter 18: You're Too Late

As I turned I heard a shuffling and something cold pressing at the back of my head. Something that felt entirely too much like a gun. A deep, rumbling voice came out from behind me.

'Don't you take another fucking step.'

My heart skipped a beat. Sweat trickled down my neck. I put my hands slightly up. I didn't want to die now.

'O…okay.' I stammered. I wanted to turn my head, to see who my attacker was, but I didn't dare. My palms were itching, and the shadows gave the place an ominous feel. The gun was pressed at the back of my head, the metal biting into my skin, constantly reminding me that the guy could end my life any time he wanted to. I shifted my weight from my left foot to my right.

'I said don't move!' the man grumbled, his voice surprisingly calm. I racked my brain, trying to put a name to the voice. I gave up after a few seconds. I didn't think that I knew this guy. At a loss, I decided to just straight up ask him.

'Who are you?' I hissed, my hands shaking. My only answer was silence. I closed my eyes, cursing silently. I thought of how pointless it would be if I died here, so soon after my recovery. Finally, the man decided to reply.

'Never mind who I am, who are you?' I swallowed, picking my words carefully.

'I'm a…prisoner. In the jail.'

'No shit. You've got a jumpsuit on. How did you get out?' The voice grumbled. It was low and intimidating.

'I've got a deal. With a warden. He lets me out.' Then silence. I could hear sniffing, then Hilton calling my name off in the distance. I stood there uncomfortably, not knowing what to do. The door was half open, so he couldn't see us in the shadows. I bit my tongue to stop myself from shouting out for help.

'Call him over.' The man said.

'Really?'

'Just do it, jackass.' Licking my lips, I shouted out for Hilton, leading him to where we were. As he was walking up to the door I felt the gun move away from the back of my head. In that moment I thought that it would be right to turn on him, to try and disarm him. It would have been the perfect moment to turn the tide. I could catch him off guard and do that. But something stooped me. I don't know what it was. It felt like that felling you get when you're a teenager. You know, you see this girl and you want to talk to her, and you think right now, this is the time, but you still don't do it? That's how I felt. Or maybe it was just cowardice, I'm not sure.

When Hilton opened the door the man walked over the door, stepping in front of me. I tried to see his face but he was engulfed by shadows. He opened the door for Hilton, then quickly stepped back. He held his pistol in both hands, stepping back, switching his aim between Hilton and me. Hilton's face was confused, but he put his hands up anyway.

'Dwight? What's going on?' he asked.

'Shut up.' The mystery man said. 'Stand next to him.' He pointed with his gun. Hilton did so, still with an expression of confusion. He shot a look at me. The man was in front of us now, still shrouded in shadow but sat down on a simple chair. With the gun still pointed at us, he said:

'This guy said you made a deal with a warden? That true?' Hilton nodded.

'Listen, we're not going to do anything. Just put away your gun.'

'I'll decide if I do that. Now you better answer this question truthfully.' He shifted a little in his seat. 'What was the wardens name?'

I was confused as to his motive, but I told him it was Deibel anyway. He seemed to slump in his seat. He switched the gun to his other hand, before throwing it on the ground next to him. He lifted a hand, wiping his eyes in an expression of fatigue.

'Crap…' he said. He got up out of his chair and walked into the light. I quickly took in his features.

I was right, I didn't know this person. He looked like hell. He had a full beard, which was scraggy and black. His face was slightly wrinkled and dirty, and his eyes were an unassuming shade of green. Questions raced through my head but I couldn't bring myself to ask him.

'I'm sorry.' He mumbled, rubbing his eyes again. I brought my hands down, not quite knowing what to do. At a loss, I just said:

'Who are you?'

The man gave a tired smile.

'You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Jesus Christ, Deibel…'

'You know Deibel?'

'Know him?' The man gave a tired, humorless chuckle before his face went grave, his eyes staring off into the distance. 'You could say that. Yeah, you could say that…'

Hilton looked at me.

'Please, just tell us who you are and why you're here.' The man shook his head as he came from his trance and looked up at Deibel.

'Alright then. Best get comfortable.'

'My name is Lawrence Kingsley.' He scratched his beard. 'I used to be a… scientist.'

'Wait, what?' I blurted out. He looked at me, annoyed.

'If I'm going to tell this to you then you'd best be quiet.'

'Sorry.'

'I used to be a scientist, back when this place wasn't a prison. Not an Avatar Driver, I just looked at samples the avatars would bring back. Sometimes I'd watch the link-ups. I understand that the Na'vi didn't exactly like us, what with that war and all, but they let us do our thing, so long as we didn't go near 'em. Things were all right, until the RDA came and just said out of the blue, we're building a prison, now get out. I'd be quite young at this time.

'Of course, most people didn't like this, but there wasn't anything we could do, you know? They didn't seem to bother us during construction. There were protests and all, at the machinery and the building. We were put into a temporary base a ways away from here. When the construction was finished, I was about to go home back to Earth. My rotation had come. But the protesters, it was basically everyone on the base now. So I joined in. And what did they do? They threw us all in the jail. I was goddamn angry, I can tell you. I hadn't done anything wrong.

'Then, this warden called Deibel came up to me, and said I'll let you out in exchange for information. I accepted, I mean, who wouldn't? Then he asked me about the Na'vi. I didn't tell him a thing, not a thing. He went back to his office, said he'd be back, and I figured he'd do something crazy like kill me, so I ran out to here. I've been hiding in here ever since. I've seen you guys before, coming out. I was there when you got the faulty exopacks.'

I was shocked. This man was from Hells Gate? I couldn't believe it. Hilton didn't look confused, he just kept asking questions.

'How have you survived?'

'There was food and water for thousands in this base. One man could survive here for the rest of his days, I reckon.'

'Why did you save us?'

'Why not?'

'This is ridiculous.'

The man smiled. 'I don't care if you do trust me or don't. I just told you, and that's the truth.'

'So why the hell did you show yourselves to us?' I asked.

'Because I had a feeling you were striking a deal with Deibel, and I wanted to warn you.'

'You're too late.' I scowled. 'You must have seen I was nearly dead when you saved us.' Lawrence shook his head.

'No. He did it with me, and he's done it with people before. He won't stop until you're dead. I only got a lucky escape.' He shook his head again. 'I don't know what you're going to do, but I'd watch your back. Because sooner or later Deibel's going to stick a knife into it.'

The encounter left me shaken. I found it hard to believe that Lawrence had hidden there for lord knows when, but I wasn't about to disregard his warning. We left him there, and we were about to go back to the prison. Hilton and I didn't discuss him. I think if we did we'd probably strike him off as an escaped prisoner gone crazy. I believed him in some strange way. Whether he was telling the truth or not wasn't important. The fact that he saved us was. I was going to be careful in the prison from now on, and I needed to think up of some plan, any plan to escape. The man had given us his gun to use outside the prison, for protection. I felt safer just knowing that Hilton had it with him. I didn't want to carry it, I wouldn't have a clue of how to use it.

Walking back to the jail, we found Thomas, outside the jail, near the forest. It seemed that that day was one of surprises. We walked up to him.

'Thomas?' I said. 'What are you doing here?'

He grinned sheepishly. If he had any questions about why we were coming from the direction of Hell's Gate.

'I wanted to say sorry, guys. Seeing Ni'awtu, it was just a shock.'

'Where's this come from, Tom?' Hilton asked. Thomas shrugged.

'Just felt like the right time. So, listen, how about going to the forest again? I want to see it properly this time.'

I looked at Hilton, dubious. I whispered to him so that Thomas wouldn't hear.

'Should we?' Hilton nodded.

'I don't see why not. Just keep an eye on him and we'll take him in a week or so.'

The next week we took Thomas to the forest. He was in a very good mood, he was almost skipping. We went to see Ni'awtu in the place we'd been before. The forest looked beautiful as always. The plants swayed in the breeze, and the sky was clear and free of clouds. Ni'awtu was sat in the same place as before, but she immediately jumped up when she saw Thomas. She scowled with anger.

'What is he doing here?' she shouted, moving into a defensive posture. Hilton raised his arms.

'Calm down, we can trust him, he won't do anything.' Ni'awtu's nostrils flared.

'You said that last time!'

'And he didn't do anything!' I said. The Na'vi's expression changed from angry to suspicious. I relaxed a bit.

'I didn't think you would do this, Dwight…' her voice was hurt. I felt sorry as soon as I heard her voice, saw her face. Although I wasn't exactly sure why. I was about to say sorry when I heard something. A high, scratching sound that seemed to be quiet yet sharp at the same time. I turned round, trying to see what was making it. I realized it was Thomas.

He was laughing slowly. Not only that, he had a gun in his hand.

And he was pointing it at Ni'awtu.


	19. Chapter 19: Things We All Have To Do

As soon as I saw the gun in Thomas's hand I was sorry I ever brought him back. I cursed myself for being so complacent, and wished nothing more than to just be able to turn back time, and go back to when things weren't so complicated. Yet I of all people knew you couldn't turn back time. You make a decision, you've got to live with it and clean up all the mess you make afterwards. Don't I know it. My trainer was fond of that phrase, he'd spout it out in between all of his Muhammad Ali quotes. He was a good man, my trainer. He was like a father to me. Didn't know where he was now, I never had a chance to say goodbye to him and tell him where I was going. I think the last time I saw him was the night before the event. There wasn't anything special about it, I was just packing up in the gym after training. I'd like to think that he hadn't forgot me, or at least someone had told him where I was. I sure as hell never forgot him. He'd say the phrase to mean that if you let a guy break your nose in a fight, you had to protect it, move on and try to come back. This time, it was a little different. This time, Thomas was pointing a gun at Ni'awtu. This time I didn't know what to do. All I could do for a while was just stare at Thomas like an idiot, my mouth hanging open. Ni'awtu was crouching there in a defensive position. My guess is that she could overwhelm Thomas easily, but he could all too easily get a shot in there and take her down with him. It took a while for my brain to start working, but all that I could seem to do was shout.

'Jesus Christ, Thomas, what the hell are you doing?' I shouted. Hilton was calming Ni'awtu down. Or at least trying to do. Whatever he said, she didn't seem to come out of her posture. There was something wildly attractive about seeing her like this; she seemed to emanate raw power. I shook such thoughts out of my head. Thomas was shaking his head.

'I don't know how you can hang around with her, D.' he laughed. I didn't know how to respond.

'What the hell are you talking about Thomas, put the goddamn gun away!' Hilton shouted.

'Shut up!' Thomas snarled, his high voice sounding strange when he was angry. 'How the hell can you stand it, D? She's an alien, for Christ's sake.'

'So what Thomas? Please, just put the gun away!' He turned to me, his voice becoming louder and angrier. He pointed the gun at my chest. Hilton had to shout at Ni'awtu to stop her from pouncing.

'D, what the hell were you thinking? I come out in the forest after all of this time, against my instincts, and you bring me to… you bring me to…' he flailed around, pointing at Ni'awtu. 'This!'

'She isn't going to hurt you, Thomas! She's just like you or me!'

'You say that now, but what about when we're not looking!'

'Thomas, I've slept at their camp, we've got nothing to be afraid of! Ni'awtu is our friend.'

Thomas breathed heavily, his chest rising and falling and his exopack making a faint noise as it filtered the air.

'She's an alien, D! She's not your friend.'

'She is, Thomas, she's not going to do anything! We told you about her before, you didn't have to come with us!' I myself was getting angry now. Thomas seemed to calm down a bit.

'D, she's not like us. My momma told me that we couldn't trust these aliens. We're not on Earth, we have to be cautious!' I was shaking my head.

'Listen, Thomas! Listen to me! We're as much aliens to them as they are to us! What do you think they think, us humans coming and building ugly buildings on their beautiful planet? Now we are lucky! Ni'awtu is helping us, she's showing us things we never would have seen otherwise! She is our friend, Thomas! Can't you see the beauty in that? Just please, put the gun down.'

He seemed to listen to me, and he was still for a moment, his eyes darting over my face. For a second I thought he was going to listen to me, and put the gun down. But we can't always have things the way we want them. A smile passed across his face.

'D… she's an alien. I can't let her live.'

'What the hell are you going to do, Thomas? Wipe out the whole of the Na'vi! Wait, no, don't!' Thomas had swung his gun on Ni'awtu. Hilton and I were both shouting at him to stop. He pulled the trigger. The muzzle flashed and a deafening bang made the creatures in the trees stir. I covered my ears. Luckily, it had missed Ni'awtu. Thomas looked shocked, then went to try again. Hilton hadn't been able to stop Ni'awtu this time. She pounced on Thomas, throwing him to the ground. She threw him a few feet and he hit the ground with a wheeze. Hilton shouted at Ni'awtu to stop. She faltered as Thomas was getting up. Thomas shook his head, and was about to raise his gun again when he realised he'd lost it.

He looked around, frantically searching. Hilton's voice stopped him.

'Stay where you are, Tom.' He had Thomas' gun in his hand, and was pointing it at him. Thomas' face went from shock, to anger then to shock in about half a second.

'Rich, what are you…'

'Shut up Tom. I think it's pretty clear what I'm doing.' He sifted his weight, still keeping his gun trained on Thomas. His hands were surprisingly steady. 'You're going to go back to the prison. We're not going to speak of this ever again.' Hiltons voice was strong and authoritative. 'Go now, and forget that this ever happened. Forget about Ni'awtu.' She was behind Hilton, her body rising and falling, her sharp teeth bared. Hilton took a deep breath. 'Or I'll kill you.'

'Rich, you wouldn't…' Thomas was cut off.

'Go!' Hilton shouted. Thomas looked at us all before running off in the direction of the road.

Ni'awtu hissed.

'Po skxawng.' She said under her breath. Hilton dropped the gun on the grass and sat down. Nobody had to say anything else. Po skxawng indeed.

'For what happened before. Thank you.' Ni'awtu said to us. 'I would have killed him.' Hilton gave a tired smile. The land was dark and the bioluminescence made the night feel like a permanent dusk. Ni'awtu herself was glowing, the dots on her face giving off a faint blue. 'I think… I think Leyra will be pleased.' She smiled, her beads jingling in her hair. It was times like that that I wished I was a Na'vi.

'I would take you to Hometree, but…'

'We know, Ni'awtu.' I said. 'We should be getting back.' She smiled, flashing a row of white teeth.

'I see you, Richard, Dwight.'

'I see you.' I whispered back. Goddamnit.

As we entered the compound, we saw Lawrence waving us over from behind the broken fence. We jogged over to him and climbed over the fence. I wondered what he wanted us for so badly. I'd never seen him come out of Hell's Gate before. Of course, he must have done, to save us from the faulty exopacks. Without saying a word, he led us through the window and into Hell's Gate.

'Have you made the plans yet?' he asked us once we were inside. I stared back at him, puzzled. I felt like a student who'd forgot to do his homework.

'What…plans?' I asked sheepishly. I felt guilty without knowing why. Lawrence looked at me like I was stupid.

'The plans to escape!' he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. My mood sunk.

'No…' I said back.

'Need I remind you that this is a matter of life or death? You need to escape from this place or you're going to die.'

'How the hell are we supposed to come up with plans?' I asked.

'It's not hard to think. Anyway, I saw Deibel come out of the prison today. I think he was looking for you.'

I cursed under my breath.

'Luckily for you I've got a plan.' Lawrence said. As he saw my smile he said: 'There's no guarantee that it will work.'

'We know that.' Hilton said.

'Right then, this is it…'

With the plan in place, we went back to the jail. As I lay in my bed, I found myself thinking of Ni'awtu. If I did escape here, if I did escape from Pandora, I would never see her again. If I stayed, sooner or later, I was going to be killed. I couldn't help but feel a huge pang of sadness at the thought of leaving Pandora. I would only ever see the forest on a TV screen, if at all. I would never feel the thrill of riding on an Ikran again, I would never spend nights laughing and laughing at the fan lizards flying through the air. Now that I'd seen Pandora, It made it all the harder to leave. I thought that it might have been better if I had never seen the forest or Ni'awtu.

No. I shook such thoughts out of my head. I was glad I'd seen the forest, found a friend. There are things we all have to do in life. That doesn't make them any less hard to do. I had a choice: Live, and go home. Or die, and stay on Pandora.

It was another week before we saw Al again. He looked older than ever, hunched over his bowl in the mess hall. At least he didn't break out into fits of coughing when he spoke now. Hilton and I walked over to him confidently, knowing that we had to do this. He looked up as we came over and smiled. Despite what he'd done, I felt happy speaking to him again.

'Al.' I said as soon as we reached him.

'We need your help.'


	20. Chapter 20: Would She Be Happy?

Al looked up at us from where he was sitting, a spoonful of mush still halfway to his mouth. When we'd finished he dropped the spoon back into the bowl and pushed it away. He scratched his cheek, and then seemed to think before saying:

'That all you need me for?'

We said yes. He sighed before coughing into his hand.

'Listen, guys.' He said. 'I'm real sorry for what happened before. I didn't…'

'We don't care, Al.' Hilton cut him off. 'Just help us with this, and all is forgiven.'

'I'm an old man, boys. I don't reckon I'll ever see Earth again. Of course I'll help you. I just hope that God can forgive me for what I've done.' He shook his head, looking up to the ceiling. 'I was right, wasn't I? Killing that burglar? I mean, he was on my property.'

'Sure, Al.' I replied. 'Sure.' We went over the details of the plan with him once more, and told him when we were going to carry it out. After we'd finished I felt sick. Here I was, actually planning an escape. The end was in sight. I just wasn't sure if I wanted to go or not. I tried thinking how old Lizzie would have been by now. I was appalled to discover that I didn't know how long I'd been in there. I didn't know how old my daughter would be. Such is life. The night before we'd scheduled the escape, my ace in the hole hidden under my bed, Hilton came to speak to me about it. When I heard his footsteps I was glad that they weren't Deibels. It's strange how if you spend enough time with them, you can tell who is coming just by the sound of them approach. This time, it was Richard Hilton. He entered my cell without saying hi and sat on the bed next to me.

'So…' he said, twiddling his thumbs.

'We're going to escape…' I said to him.

'If all goes well.'

'Thing is I don't even know if I want to anymore. Remember when Evan died, you said that we were going to escape? That seems so far away now.' There was silence before I added. 'I don't know if I want to leave.' I could feel a lump rising in my throat.

'Listen, Dwight.' Hilton looked me in the eye. 'I know that you don't want to go. I don't either, but we both know that if we stay, Deibel would kill us. It's either death, or life.'

'We could stay, with Lawrence and go out into the forest.' I started grasping at straws.

'We wouldn't be able to leave the compound without being seen, and the rest of our lives? IN there, with Lawrence?' he shook his head. 'We'd all kill each other.'

I gave a small laugh that was also a sigh.

'It's just…I'd miss it, Hilton. I'd miss the forest, and… and Ni'awtu and I just don't know if I can stand going back to Earth.'

'You might feel like that now, but you'll still have the memory. If you die you won't have anything. If you go back to Earth, you can tell people. About what's happening here.' I didn't reply. We both knew that the RDA wouldn't listen. 'Emma wouldn't have wanted you to stay here, in hiding.'

'How do you know what Emma would want?' I shot back, a little angry.

'Because you've told us about her. And you need to go back and mourn, Dwight. We all know you haven't got past her death yet. You need to leave.' I stayed silent, resting my chin on my hands. He was right. Goddamn it, he was right.

So we carried on with the escape plans. I didn't sleep that night. The next morning, it wasn't a mining day. We could carry it out freely, assuming Deibel didn't come and kill me whilst I slept. luckily, he didn't. And so, it was a sunny, perfect day when we called for Al, and marched up to the man guarding the door to the outside.

Once again, he didn't say anything. Just gave us the exopacks. I prayed that these ones weren't faulty. Of course, I hadn't seen Deibel yet. He might think that I was dead. The man passed me three, and I gave them to my friends. Our faces were grave when we walked into decompression and waited for the light to go green, and the hissing to indicate that we could open the door.

Outside, the sun was blazing. Everything that it's rays touched was red hot, including us. A slight breeze ruffled our suits and made me grateful. I breathed in a deep breath, looking at the trees ahead of us, swaying softly, and listening to the animals in the distance. Today was a good day. I couldn't help but think that we should go and see Ni'awtu, and lounge about lazily in the sun. We should just forget about this and live life one day at a time. I shook such thoughts out of my head. They weren't going to help me. The first step was relatively simple. We strode over the hard concrete floor, moving away from the main gate and towards the broken fence.

'You sure this is all I have to do?' Al asked.

'Yes.' Hilton replied bluntly. For the first time in a while, I was moving with a purpose, and not just to see Ni'awtu. It felt surprisingly good, the adrenaline already running through my veins. We reached the fence and climbed over it, Al taking a while longer but waving Hilton away when he offered help. From there, we climbed through the broken window to see Lawrence standing in the adjacent room, waiting for us. We nodded at him as a silent greeting.

'Is everything according to plan?' He asked in his gravely voice. I nodded again. 'Right.' He said. 'Al, I'm going to need your clothes.'

Al stripped out of his jump suit, leaving him with only underwear on. Lawrence did the same, and they swapped clothes. The orange suit was a little small on Lawrence, but we had been lucky that they were of similar size and shape. Hilton looked Lawrence up and down.

'It'll do.' He said. He turned to Al. 'We just need you to stay here until we come to get you.' Al smiled. 'I don't want to escape.' Hilton blinked. 'I'm an old man, boys. You don't have to come back for me. I always did want to see the forest. It's been a pleasure meeting you.' He smiled again, offering us his hand. I shook it, looking him in the eye.

'You're serious.' I muttered. 'I don't care what you say, I'm coming back for you, Al.' I said. I left him at that. It was enjoyable having the last word. All we did then was walk back. With Lawrence in the tight orange jump suit, we walked back after waiting about 5 minutes. When we got to the entrance, there was a horrible moment when I thought that he wouldn't let us in. To give him credit, Lawrence did a pretty good job at making himself inconspicuous.

I'm sure that it was just my imagination. After all, he let us in after what seemed like years. We rushed in, my heart pumping fast. The light couldn't turn green soon enough. Now that we were carrying out our plan, I didn't think of anything. Didn't think if I wanted to or not, just thought about what I was going to do next. Everyone was outside exercising, so there was no one but the guards to watch us walk back to my cell. I thought about what a horrible existence it would be, to be a guard. I could imagine them wanting someone to punch him so he could do something.

I walked to my cell and looked under my bed. It was still there. Temporarily relieved, I picked up the seemingly small bag of cocaine that Al had given to me. The man had connections, to be able to get it all the way out here. Of course, the guards probably brought it over themselves on their rotation. I strode out of my cell, leaving Hilton and Lawrence in my cell. I went to the nearest guard I could see. Trying to look like someone who knew what they were doing, I talked to him.

'Hey you!' I said, feeling foolish. He shook his head.

'You talking to me?' he said in a high voice.

'You know where Deibel's office is?' I said.

'What if I do?'

'Tell him to come to Dwight Dolton's cell, and I might make it worth your while.' I clumsily tried to show him the bag in my palm. He seemed to lick his lips, then he walked up to me and snatched the bag from my palm. I breathed a sigh of relief as he walked off. The plan was going well. Of course, he was probably bored to tears and would do anything to liven up his day. I'd just offered it to him. The next stage of the plan was nervously waiting in my cell, biting our nails. It wasn't pleasant and we didn't say anything. We waited and waited. Until I heard the sound. The click clacking. It was Deibel. And he was coming towards us fast.

We all stood up as we heard the sound. It was hard to mistake it for anything else. I felt a trickle of sweat run down my back. Deibel made himself visible, wearing his pristine- blue suit. I felt a shiver as I saw his face. He was obviously angry at the news of me being alive had reached him. And he didn't exactly expect two other people to be in here with me. The anger just seemed to pour off of him, and in that moment I felt more scared than I had when we were about to be killed by the guards that took people out to the forest. I bit my lip. There was a silver lining at least: he didn't have guards with him.

'Dolton!' He barked. 'What the hell…' his eyes widened as he noticed who was in the cell with me. A small smile of satisfaction passed Lawrence's face.

'You're dead…' he muttered.

'Nice to see you too, Alex.' Lawrence grinned. I could tell he was enjoying this. I could almost see the smoke coming from Deibel's ears. As Deibel was frozen with surprise, Lawrence ran up and punched him right in the face. Not ready for it, he fell onto the ground, his nose bleeding. Lawrence hit him again and screamed:

'RUN!'

Hilton and I dashed out of the cell, rushing down the stairs. We ran towards the corridors, through them and towards the exit. I heard more running behind us, and Deibel's voice screaming:

'What the hell do we pay you for? Shoot them!'

Luckily we were at the exit when the guards had been alarmed. We reached the sleepy guard that never had an expression on his face. We didn't have time to wait for him. Hilton punched him, knocking him clean out in one punch. We quickly picked up the exopacks as I punched in the code to open the door. I had been doing this for the past few weeks. I'd found out that the code never changed, or at least not any time I saw it. The man had been punching it in so slowly it was hard to not see what the code was. I just never had to take advantage of it before. The door opened slowly and we put exopacks on. A few seconds later, Lawrence came sliding around the corner, his face red. I tossed him an exopack and he screamed at us to go through the door. I heard Deibel running with what sounded like more guards. My heart pumped faster and faster, and I was nearly out of breath already. The light turned green as soon as Deibel and his muscle came hurtling around the corner. I smiled. There were two emergency exopacks in the decompression chamber. Although I wouldn't put it past him to gather a hundred exopacks and come after us with a hundred guards. Although as angry as he was, and having just seen a person he thought was dead, I didn't think he'd be up to much thinking. We ran out of the gate, which the guard opened with no complaint.

Our heels kicked up dirt as we thundered through the forest and towards our destination. I heard Deibel and a guard not far behind us. That was good. He had only brought one guy. What we didn't plan for was the gunshots. The bullets drummed into the ground beneath our feet and Lawrence screamed. Hilton grabbed me and forced me to turn a corner, going off the road and into the forest proper. The same sounds rang out through the trees, the familiarity ruined by the fact that we were running for our lives. The bullets came again, the gunshots deafening. Luckily none hit us and we turned another corner. Not much longer now. I ran and ran, reminded of when we'd tried to escape the first time. So much more was at stake now. I took in big breaths of air, my legs becoming tired. Not long now.

We reached our destination without getting shot. I noted the familiarity of the big orange spiral plants, and the smaller yellow ones. I smiled and wooped as I saw that one of them was there. I turned around, and Deibel came rushing through the trees and into the clearing, his guard not far behind. His face twisted in confusion as he wondered why we'd stopped. Then he saw the figure behind me. I shouted

'Keep the one in the blue alive!'

The leaves in the tree rustled above us and I looked up. Leyra was standing on a branch, and she was ready. She leaped down, letting out a roar. Our two followers looked up too late, and the Na'vi had jumped onto the guard before he knew it. I heard a snapping and I flinched. Poor guy. Now it was just Deibel and us. Lawrence was standing behind us, Hilton by my side. Deibel looked to the dead guard. He turned to me, his face twisted in rage as he unclipped the holster at his side and drew out the gun.

'Stop.' Ni'awtu's voice came out from behind me. She was holding her bow in her hands, an arrow knocked and pointed at Deibel. He looked behind him and saw Leyra doing the same.

'Drop the weapon, Deibel.' I said, a smile creeping up on me. The power was delicious.

He didn't make any move to drop his gun. Hilton's voice came out from beside me.

'These arrows could rip a hole in you big enough for all your organs to pour out of. So drop the weapon.' Deibel snarled with anger but dropped the weapon. I went over to pick it up, trying to stay as far away from him as possible. I picked it up and backed off, aiming it at him. He raised his hands, and it pleased me to see that they were shaking. Something in me wanted to lash out and pull the trigger again and again, to teach him a lesson. I told myself to calm down. I'd have my revenge in due time.

It was then that I realised Deibel was smiling.

'What are you smiling about?' I asked.

'You underestimated me, Dolton!' He laughed. He waved a hand above his head and suddenly there was a movement to my left, a stirring in the plants. Before I could act, a man with a gun jumped out, firing wildly in our direction. I dived to the floor, my hands on my head. I heard a whooshing of air, and before I knew it, the man had an arrow stuck through his chest, and he crumpled to the floor, dead.

My ears still ringing, I looked back up, quickly pointing my gun at Deibel. He was still there, Leyra was making sure of that. Good.

'Is anyone hit?' Lawrence shouted.

'No!' I said back.

'Richard?' Lawrence said. I quickly turned around. Hilton was slumped over, his hands on his stomach. He raised one of his hands and saw that it was covered in blood. He looked up at me and smiled. I ran to him and caught his body before he slumped to the ground. It was pretty obvious that he'd been shot twice, because our jump-suits were so thin. He was trembling, and his breath was raggedy, as if he couldn't draw in enough oxygen. I didn't know what to do with my hands, and I let out an:

'Oh God, Hilton, no.' He smiled again and let out a small laugh that looked like it hurt.

'Stop laughing, I'll, I'll take you to the Na'vi, get you help.' I was going to move him but thought better of it.

'We both know that's a lie, Dwight.' He said.

'No, it's not, it's…' I felt tears forming at my eyes. Hilton smiled again.

'I wasn't…keen on going back anyway. It'll be nice…going out in the forest, around such beauty…'

'You're not going out!' he ignored me.

'Looks like I'll get my wish, eh?' he was taking more breaths in-between words now, I could almost feel the energy seeping out of him. I tried to think of something to say.

'You've done well, Dwight.' He said. ' It's been great.' And with that, he closed his eyes and I felt the life go away from him. I was left holding a limp body. I let the tears fall, feeling terrible. Richard Hilton was dead.

Deibel was laughing. I turned around and screamed:

'SHUT THE HELL UP!' at him. He seemed to stop. I stayed over Hilton's body for a time: I couldn't tell you how long. But it seemed all too soon when Lawrence knelt by me and whispered that we should be going. I was insistent on a burial, but he was quick to point out that it was impractical. I argued for a while, Deibel still saying nothing. He started making a noise that sounded like laughing, and I was so overcome with anger that I strode over to him and ripped his exopack off. Lawrence shouted at me to stop, but I felt a feeling as satisfaction as Deibel's eyes seemed to pop out of his skull and he was left gasping for air.

I put the mask on him moments before he passed out, and he was left helpless, gasping for air. I made him look into my eyes when I growled:

'You're going to make the papers for my release, you murderer. You're going to call an unobtanium ship down, and you're going TO ARRANGE A FUNERAL FOR HIM!' I pointed at Hilton's dead body. Ni'awtu and Leyra were wisely leaving us to it. Deibel could do nothing but nod.

'If you do anything so much as breath out of place I'll leave the pack off next time!' I spat the words out like poison. He didn't say anything, his hands on his exopack. I told Lawrence to take him out towards the road and leave me and the Na'vi together. I waited a while, looking at Hilton's body. I tried to push the thoughts from my head. I would have time to mourn him later.

'Dwight.' Ni'awtu said. 'I am sorry.'

'You have nothing to be sorry of, Ni'awtu. Thank you.' I said back, stretching my neck up high to look into her eyes. She knelt down, making it easier.

'I thank you, Dwight Dolton, for being my friend.' She smiled that beautiful smile and my heart broke at the thought of never seeing her again. I was having afterthoughts. I smiled, feeling more tears forming at the edge of my eyes.

'I don't want to go…' I whispered.

'But you must. We understand.' Ni'awtu finished for me. 'If you wanted…we could bury your friend.' Ni'awtu said. I nodded, breathing becoming hard for me

'That would be nice.'

'Goodbye, Leyra, Ni'awtu.' I made the 'I see you' sign and was expecting Ni'awtu to do the same, but she didn't. She knelt down very low and gathered me in a gentle embrace. Surprised, I let the tears flow. Leyra hugged me too. I said I See You to both of them, and watched them walk off, Hilton in their arms, the three of them never to be seen by me again.

I walked back to the road, my mood low. I made threats to Deibel. Threats that I won't repeat here. His face went white, and I pretty much shoved him all the way back to the prison. Lawrence went back to Hell's Gate to get Al, leaving me alone with Deibel.

'Get me out of here and I'll leave you alive.' I muttered. Deibel's face got a bit of colour back at that.

'How can I trust you?' he shot back. I grabbed him by the hair.

'You can't.' I growled. Impatient, I made him march back into the prison, my gun pointing at the back of his head. The guards in the cell blocks I walked past raised their guns. I growled at Deibel to tell them to stand down, and he did so. We did this all the way to Admin head Brydon's office, for his signature.

'What the hell is going on here?' He shouted when I walked in.

'You're signing my release papers, Brydon.' I said. I trained my gun on him and told his guards to stand down. They did so, but kept their guns ready, waiting for the order. Deibel seemed to have the practical power around here, as he screamed at Brydon to make them and do it. I waited whilst Brydon ordered a young guy at a computer to do it. It seemed easy now it got down to it. All we needed was their permission. What would happen on the other end, I didn't know. I'd come to that when it happened.

It took a few hours, but the ship came down. I was leaving. The airfield was a while away from the prison, and we'd be taken up in the ship used to take unobtanium up to the ISV. Lawrence, Al and I got inside, showing papers. I left Deibel alive. There was a moment when I realised: killing him would solve nothing. It would serve to satisfy me for a few hours, then nothing would have changed. Killing scum like Deibel was a job for someone else. All I wanted, when Hilton died, was to get far away from Pandora when I thought about it. The Na'vi would bury him. I wonder now, if he's with Eywa. I hope so. I think he'd have wanted that. As I stared out of the window at the forest as we went up into the clouds, many thoughts rushed through my head, but one was prevalent. I was going home.

I was escaping.

'What will you do when you get back?' Lawrence asked me.

'I don't know.' I replied.

'I don't know.'

This has been the story of a man and his madness. This has been the story of death, of live and of Pandora. A story of friendship and the Na'vi. As I sit here, as I reach the end of this story, I'm thinking of Emma. I ask you one question:

Would she be happy?

* * *

><p><strong>THE END. I hope you enjoyed reading Escape From Pandora. <strong>


End file.
